Singing cowboy

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Singing cowboy" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Part of a series on
Westerns
Media Film Television Literature Visual arts Dime novels Comics Wild West shows
Subgenres Acid Western Australian Western Contemporary Western Dacoit Western Epic Western Fantasy Western Florida Western Gothic Western Horror Western Northern Ostern Revisionist Western Science fiction Western Singing cowboy Space Western Spaghetti Western Weird Western Western romance Zapata Western
Lists Lists of Western films List of Western fiction authors List of Western television series Golden Boot Awards
Terms Old West Cowboy culture Cowboy Gunfighter Outlaw Quick draw Saloon Manifest destiny

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 Marty Robbins, 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.