The Roots of Cowboy Music

March 17, 2017 8:29 AM

The Search for a Black Self in the American West - Carvell Wallace, MTV News [via]
posted by Think_Long (3 comments total)

No solid information here about African-American input into cowboy music. It's more about the writer's generally benign feelings about things surrounding cowboys and the American west and American music. My personal belief is that African-Americans are responsible for about 60-80% of what's great in American popular music, and so that should probably hold for cowboy music as well. If there's a great cowboy song out there, it's safe to guess that it has African-American roots.
Here are some much stronger articles about African Americans and the roots of country and western music.
The Roots of Country Music
Country Music's Little White Myth
Race and Country Music, Then and Now
Let's give credit where credit is due -- and go out and enjoy some good country music.
posted by Modest House at 10:46 AM on March 17, 2017 [5 favorites]

I love Carvell Wallace's writing so much. Thanks for linking this, I'm glad not to have missed it! It aches in uncomfortable ways about community and being haunted/shaped by what others can't/don't see. (And now I need to go read more of Henry Real Bird's poetry.)

I read "How America's Black Cowboy Population is Fighting Erasure" recently, and it might also be of interest here. The Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo is awesome.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 1:55 PM on March 17, 2017 [3 favorites]

That is some great writing. Thanks for posting.
posted by The Toad at 9:58 PM on March 17, 2017