Singing cowboy

A singing cowboy was a subtype of the archetypal cowboy hero of early Western films. It references real-world campfire side ballads in the American frontier, the original cowboys sang of life on the trail with all the challenges, hardships, and dangers encountered while pushing cattle for miles up the trails and across the prairies. This continues with modern vaquero traditions and within the genre of Western music, and its related New Mexico, Red Dirt, Tejano, and Texas country music styles. A number of songs have been written and made famous by groups like the Sons of the Pioneers and Riders in the Sky and individual performers such as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, Bob Baker and other "singing cowboys". Singing in the wrangler style, these entertainers have served to preserve the cowboy as a unique American hero. The musical “The Singin' Cowboy” had its world premiere in August 2011 at the Palace Theatre (Marion, Ohio). Under the direction of former Marion Palace Theatre executive director and first artistic director, the late Tina Salamone. (Original premise by Todd Mueller. Book by Todd Mueller and Hank Boland. Music and lyrics by Gregg Opelka.) It ran for 6 performances. The image of the singing cowboy was established in 1925 when Carl T. Sprague of Texas recorded the cowboy song, "When the Work's All Done This Fall". A year later, John I. White became the first representative of the genre to perform on a nationally broadcast radio show. Other early recording artists in the Western genre included Jules Verne Allen, Harry McClintock, Wilf Carter alias Montana Slim, and Tex Owens who wrote "The Cattle Call" which became a standard in the singing cowboy genre. Many of these early recording artists had grown up on ranches and farms or had experience working as cowboys. They typically performed simple arrangements with rustic vocal performances and a simple guitar or fiddle accompaniment. The full popularity of the singing cowboys was not reached until the spread of sound films and the emergence of the commercial country music industry.