Now I know I'm probably sort of out of place here, being in Yorkshire and mainly ignorant of the tradition, but about 12 years ago I heard my first cowboy song(s) when my other half returned from 2 months working in Southern Wyoming with a tape by Michael Martin Murthy. This does have a version of the "Sierry Petes (Tyin’ Knots in the Devil’s Tail)" on it, which I like, plus a version of "To Hear the Nightingale Sing" which is common in English song (replace cowboy with soldier), and "The Meaning of Life" which is more of a poem. (Also others too numerous to mention).

10 years ago we took the family to Wyoming and ended up, as a result of a double-booked hotel room near Yellowstone, at the Cody Ranch Resort. There was a cowboy poet/singer on that night, and a very intimate group of no more than a dozen people sat round a log fire with dogs at our feet to hear him - and he did the "Meaning of Life". I can't remember his name, but he was a hatmaker by trade and had a shop in Cody.

What interests me is the influences you can hear from the other traditions that were the backgrounds of these men. I got hold of a book of cowboy songs published by Mel Bay. I grabbed it when I saw it because it's not the sort of thing you see every day. There are dance tunes in the back of the book, and you can see how tunes have travelled well.

Andrea