# Cowboy music **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 2, 2017, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cowboy-music/795309 "2017-09-02T07:26:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2017, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cowboy-music/795309/1 "2017-09-02T07:26:53Z")
I recently heard some incidental music - just harmonica, some accordion and violin playing a low-key noodling melody - and it instantly put me in mind of any number of golden age westerns. My question is whether this style and form of music is ‘authentic’, in that it was actually played in the late 19th century cowboy-western United States, or is largely a later, possibly Hollywood construct. Yes, I’m aware that the rootin-tootin-shootin ‘Wild West’ is itself a fiction, but talking more about the real ranching west with genuine cowpersons. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2017, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cowboy-music/795309/2 "2017-09-02T08:51:58Z")
Most cowboy music in western movies isn’t period music. Cowboys would sing things like, “Green Grow the Violets” or “Sweet Betsy from Pike.” “Red River Valley” is a period folk song that was used in some movies, as is “Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie.” But things like “Cattle Call,” “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” and “Along the Navajo Trail” were written in the 1930s or later. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2017, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cowboy-music/795309/3 "2017-09-02T11:03:58Z")
**Moderator Action** Moving thread from GQ to CS. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2017, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cowboy-music/795309/4 "2017-09-02T11:41:37Z")
This wikipedia page has a good history of western (cowboy) music. > **[Western music (North America)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_music_(North_America))** > > Western music is a form of country music composed by and about the people who settled and worked throughout the Western United States and Western Canada. Western music celebrates the lifestyle of the cowboy on the open ranges, Rocky Mountains, and prairies of Western North America. Directly related musically to old English, Irish, Scottish, and folk ballads, also the Mexican folk music of Northern Mexico and Southwestern United States influenced the development of this genre, particularly corrido... Basically, it has its roots in European folk songs and evolved into what we think of as cowboy music in the early 1900s (since real cowboys were in the 1800s it’s obviously it’s not period authentic). The harmonica made its way to the US in the mid 1800s. It’s small size and easy portability did make it a popular instrument, so it’s quite possible that some real cowboys would have carried one. Cowboys back in the day were probably more likely to go into town on their days off and watch some travelling blackface minstrels perform than they were to sit around the campfire while some musically talented farm hand whittled away at a harmonica. But then you aren’t likely to see blackface minstrels in any Hollywood movie these days. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2017, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cowboy-music/795309/5 "2017-09-03T05:48:01Z")
My understanding of “cowboy music” is that on cattle drives, the cattle hated to be surprised by someone on horseback suddenly showing up near them, so cowboys would sing to the cows to let them know they were not alone and that no one was sneaking up on them. I can just see a group of cow punchers breaking into fine four-part harmony on “I get a Kick Out of You”, as in **Blazing Saddles**