Popular mythology depicts cowboys crooning soft lullabies to cattle on open ranges, singing old familiar songs and hymns, or creating new songs or verses to existing songs in the long dark hours of the night. While this image is highly romanticized, the association between music and the cowboy is not entirely unfounded. For cowboys, recollections from actual workers or witnesses have been recorded long before singing became a profession, recorded, or played on the radio and film because anywhere working men have been isolated for periods of time in particular circumstances, a tradition of song by or about those men and their work develops; sailors, loggers, railroad workers, boatmen, miners, and others all have rich musical traditions (Quay,
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Frank Dobie remarked that, “no human sound that I have ever heard approaches in eeriness or in soothing melody that indescribably whistle of the cowboy,” while stockman Joseph McCoy wrote that he had “many times sat upon the fence of a shipping yard and sand to an enclosed herd whilst a train would be rushing by. And it is surprising how quiet the herd will be so long as they can hear the human voice. . .Singing hymns to Texas steers is the peculiar forte of a genuine cowboy, but the spirit of true piety does not abound in the sentiment (Green, 13).” Other contemporary accounts point to “Sam Bass” or “Red River Valley” as songs frequently sung by cowboys; western author Ramon Adams recalled, “Away back at the beginnin’ of the cow business it didn’t take the cowman long to savvy that the human voice gave cattle confidence, and kept ‘em from junin’ around. . .The practice got to be so common that night herdin’ was spoken of as ‘singin’ to ‘em (Green, 13).’” While Jack Thorp, the first collector and one of the first composers of cowboy songs, wrote bluntly, “It is generally thought that the cowboys did a lot of singing around the herd at night to quiet them on the bed ground. I have asked about this, and I’ll say that I have stood my share of night watches in fifty years, and I seldom heard singing of any kind,” his individual account does not stand for other firsthand accounts of actual cowboys like Charles Siringo (Green, 15). In his book, A Texas Cowboy, he paints a portrait of cowboys singing, referring to a specific 1874 trail
Frank Dobie remarked that, “no human sound that I have ever heard approaches in eeriness or in soothing melody that indescribably whistle of the cowboy,” while stockman Joseph McCoy wrote that he had “many times sat upon the fence of a shipping yard and sand to an enclosed herd whilst a train would be rushing by. And it is surprising how quiet the herd will be so long as they can hear the human voice. . .Singing hymns to Texas steers is the peculiar forte of a genuine cowboy, but the spirit of true piety does not abound in the sentiment (Green, 13).” Other contemporary accounts point to “Sam Bass” or “Red River Valley” as songs frequently sung by cowboys; western author Ramon Adams recalled, “Away back at the beginnin’ of the cow business it didn’t take the cowman long to savvy that the human voice gave cattle confidence, and kept ‘em from junin’ around. . .The practice got to be so common that night herdin’ was spoken of as ‘singin’ to ‘em (Green, 13).’” While Jack Thorp, the first collector and one of the first composers of cowboy songs, wrote bluntly, “It is generally thought that the cowboys did a lot of singing around the herd at night to quiet them on the bed ground. I have asked about this, and I’ll say that I have stood my share of night watches in fifty years, and I seldom heard singing of any kind,” his individual account does not stand for other firsthand accounts of actual cowboys like Charles Siringo (Green, 15). In his book, A Texas Cowboy, he paints a portrait of cowboys singing, referring to a specific 1874 trail