# Favorite Singing Cowboys **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 30, 2015, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036 "2015-09-30T14:19:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036/41 "2015-10-01T22:06:33Z")
> [@Master\_Wang-Ka](#): > > Well, any farmer will tell you that slow, rhythmic, calming tones will tend to soothe cattle. They’ve even tried piping music into milking barns for that reason. I picked up the info from a book I read, but durned if I could cite it now… call it anecdotal. > > But apparently, the cowboys believed it. Well we do know (anecdotally) that happy cows make happy cheese. If music makes steers happy then they can probably be turned into happy steaks. > [@Chronos](#): > > Even if it wasn’t true, so long as the ranchers thought it was true, or the singer could convince the owners of that, it would still mean more demand for the singers. It would be a valuable skill even if it just made the other cowboys happy. Out on the range that is, there were other ways to keep them happy in town. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036/42 "2015-10-01T22:38:41Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Well we do know (anecdotally) that happy cows make happy cheese. If music makes steers happy then they can probably be turned into happy steaks. I was not aware that cows gave cheese. I thought the people had to do that part… and I dislike thinking of how one would get the cheese out of the cow. > [@TriPolar](#): > > It would be a valuable skill even if it just made the other cowboys happy. Out on the range that is, there were other ways to keep them happy in town. I also do not care to think too hard about cowboys keeping other cowboys happy out on the range. Playing the guitar is ONE thing, but… ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036/43 "2015-10-01T22:47:18Z")
> [@Master\_Wang-Ka](#): > > I was not aware that cows gave cheese. I thought the people had to do that part… and I dislike thinking of how one would get the cheese out of the cow. > > I also do not care to think too hard about cowboys keeping other cowboys happy out on the range. Playing the guitar is ONE thing, but… Maybe that wasn’t cheese… ---
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036/44 "2015-10-04T17:27:37Z")
The Whisperin’ Squash (FST)? ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036/45 "2015-10-04T20:51:35Z")
The problem lies in differentiatin’ actual singing cowboys from country and western performers who just DRESSED like cowboys. Spade Cooley was a fine musician, but I’m not sure he knew which end of a cow you feed. ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036/46 "2015-10-04T21:33:39Z")
[quote=“astorian, post:18, topic:733036”] We tend to forget that other countries have had ranches, cattle, and even singing cowboys. Anyone outside Australia remember Slim Dusty? [/QUOTE] Slim Dusty singing _Waltzing Matilda_ at the Closing Ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics? Absolutely I remember Slim Dusty. It was the highlight of that Olympics to me. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036/47 "2015-10-04T21:46:32Z")
Let’s not forget Festus from Gunsmoke, either. [I’m not kidding.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWR6FLnPack) ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036/48 "2015-10-04T21:49:38Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Let’s not forget Festus from Gunsmoke, either. > > [I’m not kidding.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWR6FLnPack) …crap in a hat. Nice voice! But he was an actor, not a cowboy. And he lived and worked in an era where Patty Duke and Leonard Nimoy could and did cut albums. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036/49 "2015-10-04T21:54:20Z")
This is what I was talking about earlier. John Wayne, for all the Westerns he made, was _never an actual cowboy._ Most well known western actors weren’t. Gene Autry may be the only actual cowboy, actor, and singer I can think of off the top of my head. We may need to expand our definition, here… can we also include actors whose horsemanship, ruggedness, and general image defined 'em as “cowboys?” Ken Curtis would qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036/50 "2015-10-04T22:01:39Z")
> [@Master\_Wang-Ka](#): > > …crap in a hat. Nice voice! > > But he was an actor, not a cowboy. And he lived and worked in an era where Patty Duke and Leonard Nimoy could and did cut albums. Actually, most of the people being mentioned in this thread were primarily actors, not cowboys. And Ken Curtis was a singer long before Patty Duke became famous and long before he became an actor, though he wasn’t always a western singer. He replaced Frank Sinatra in Tommy Dorsey’s band for a short while in the early forties, but also has western music cred from having sung with _The Sons of the Pioneers_ from 1949 to 1953. I’ll grant that he was never a cowboy but the OP didn’t seem intended to parse the definition beyond that of cowboy music to singers who were real life cowboys. [Cite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Curtis) ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036/51 "2015-10-04T22:05:44Z")
Your point seems valid. Generally from what I am seeing, most cowboys who hit it off in Hollywood seem to have done so as extras or stuntmen… or actual employees on movie ranches. And of those rare few who managed to grab star billing, Autry seems to be the only one who actually did any time as a cowboy (on his father’s ranch in Oklahoma) AND was known as a singer as well as an actor. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036/52 "2015-10-05T18:33:11Z")
Well, as I noted earlier, Ian (as in Ian and Sylvia) Tyson WAS a Canadian cowboy in real life. His Stetson isn’t just prop, the way Roy Rogers’ was. Roy always admitted cheerfully that he was from Cincinnati, not from Out West. In fact, he used to joke that his childhood home was somewhere around 2nd base at the Reds’ old home, Riverfront Stadium. Ian’s best known song, “Four Strong Winds,” is a semi-autobiographical song about a cowboy leaving a troubled love affair to head out to a ranch in Alberta (he still holds out some tiny hope his love may yet agree to join him there). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-singing-cowboys/733036.md?page=2)