The Cowboy Song Eras

Tthe cowboy and western song genre as falling into three general eras: 1850-1900, 1900-1957, and 1957-present.

1850-1900. Open and Closed Range

1850 -1875 was the era of the Open Range and the cattle trails (Shawnee, Eastern/Chisholm, Western, Goodnight-Loving, etc.). The Open Range era was the time of the extinction of the great bison herds and the ending of the dominance of indigenous native societies in the plains and west of the plains. And after the end of the War of Secession in 1865, the opening of the great cattle trails from Texas to the Kansas railheads and new ranches in Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas.

1875-1900 was the era of the Closed Range and the expansion of the railroads as the appearance of barbed wire in 1875 led to a rapid fencing-in of the open range as private property. The songs of these two eras were based on traditional folk tunes that arrived with immigrants or were composed by individuals, both cowboy and non-cowboy. Many of the words to the songs were carried over into the cowboy songs but many songs were just the melodies of the folk songs with new words created by the cowboys. There was a strong “bawdy” character to the words created by the cowboys.

1900-1957. Western Nostalgia and Silver Screen

1900-1930. As the western frontier became settled and the land that is now the contiguous 48 states became defined by state borders, there emerged a nostalgia for the frontier days and the old west. Many people wrote songs to hearken back to the old west and days of the open and closed ranges. The songs reflected an idealized view of the cowboy way of life. The cowboy and western movies were mostly silent films.

1930-1957. In 1932, Gene Autry appeared in the first silver screen cowboy movie, launching the Silver Screen Cowboy era. Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, Charles Sterrett, Rex Allen, and many others appeared in a great many black and white and later color cowboy movies that were not authentic replicas of the actual lives of cowboys during the 1850-1900 eras. Many song writers wrote songs for those movies as well as songs for general performance. The last of the Silver Screen cowboy movies coincided with the last Rex Allen movie in about 1957.

1957-Present. Contemporary Cowboy and Western Songs

With the 1950’s emergence of television and movie reruns, the emergence of rock and roll, and the decision by the country music people to create their own Country Music Association without any connection to cowboy and western music except for the clothing, cowboy and western music fell into its own small musical and performing niche, in which it effectively has remained. But the composition of cowboy and western music has continued, with an expansive repertoire that is currently the primary performance focus of song writers, cowboy poets, and performers who remain with the genre. The Western Music Association, now the International Western Music Association, was founded around 1989 by a core group of prominent cowboy and western performers of both song and poetry. It continues today as the prime mover for the genre.