Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: Suffet
Date: 27 Sep 08 - 06:44 AM

Howdy again!

My newest CD, Low Rent District, which contains The Santa Fe Trail along with 17 other tracks, has now been released. I sent a box of the to CD Baby, and they should be ready for purchase in about two weeks. You can click here to check the availability of Low Rent District and my other CDs.

Next stop: the United Kingdom. Please click here for tour schedule.

See y'all 'cross the pond!

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: GUEST,Dave MacKenzie
Date: 20 Sep 08 - 07:27 PM

"I once saw a post card with a GENE AUTRY, OKLA"

Doesn't have the same ring as Joe, Montana (or even Milton Keynes Bucks - used to play in the BAFL)

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: Jayto
Date: 19 Sep 08 - 09:57 PM

Your not the guy that wears his underwear and a cowboy hat in Times Square right? lol JK I like your songs
cya

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: Suffet
Date: 19 Sep 08 - 05:22 PM

Weelittledrummer,

Wow, all I have to do is record a cowboy song and I become an object of envy! But isn't envy one of the seven deadly sins? I don't want to be responsible for leading a fellow 'Catter down the primrose path to you know where.


Stringsinger,

I never realized the two ends of a horse are up and down. I always thought they were north and south.


Q,

So that explains why I once saw a post card with a GENE AUTRY, OKLA. postmark. It was from long before the US Postal Service began using the two-letter state abbreviations like OK.


--- Steve

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 Sep 08 - 03:56 PM

Its like these transexuals that have a woman inside them waiting to get out.

This guy was born with a cowboy inside him.

His knowledge of horses ups and downs is not the point - he feels he's a cowboy. so he is.

I know people who think they should have been born Irish, and others who think they should have been born black. Prince Charles wanted to be a tampon - and wound up being heir to the throne of England - that must have taken some adjusting to.

Its a question of being what makes you feel fulfilled.

I wish I could think up something to be that would make me feel fulfilled. In a way, I envy Suffet.

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Sep 08 - 03:01 PM

Gene Autry was a lot more than a 'drugstore cowboy,' becoming an American icon, western lore collector and prominent business man.

He started singing on KVOO, Tulsa, at age 22, and, with an assist from Will Rogers, soon became a star. He was involved in many charities, and brought together much important material about the development of the American West. A 33rd degree Mason, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Court of Honor.
His touring rodeo and concert sold out Madison Square Garden and other major venues.
After service in WW2, he went on to own KTLA TV of Los Angeles. He bought the Americal League Angels in 1961. He received many awards from musical, acting and business associations.
In 1988 he opened his Western Heritage Museum, which in 2004 became part of the Autry National Center, bringing together the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of the American West, and the Institute for the Study of the American West.
He was mourned by many when he died in 1998 at age 91.
Gene Autry

A separate group operate the Gene Autry Film and Music festival, which brings together western singers and story tellers; Sept. 24-28 this year, at the Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum, Gene Autry, OK (Ardmore area).
www.geneautryokmuseum.com/

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: Stringsinger
Date: 19 Sep 08 - 01:36 PM

The drugstore cowboy is part of the folklore we know. Elliott Adnapos or Sandy Pinckney,
Leonard Sly, and others are familiar because we know they aren't the "real deal". Gentleman Gene Autry though he was raised on a ranch wanted to leave it as soon as possible becoming a telegrapher and ultimately a drug store cowboy.

Real cowboys are a rough lot, knock you down as soon as look at you, drink heavily,
really ride quarter horses, participate in rodeos, brahma bull riding, rodeo clowns,
bull dogging and other sporting (or unsporting) events.

The Brooklyn Cowboy (even the MIdnight Cowboy) emerged in the 60's when New Yorkers
were disenchanted with city life and reached for the exurbanite's dream.

Nowadays, we have the cowboy poets which are entertaining and many quite good.

But as I was once informed, Brooklyn Cowboys don't know which end of a horse is up.

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: Suffet
Date: 18 Sep 08 - 05:12 PM

Oldhippie: You're right. I'm not that dude.

Spaw: No, I don't see any resemblance. Besides, that photo was taken in Manhattan, not Brooklyn.

Leadfingers: We have a Rochdale in Queens as well. Actually, it's called Rochdale Village, it's in a part of Queens called Jamaica, and it's one of New York City's first large scale cooperative housing developments. As far as cowboys go, I really don't know of any.

Paul: I never heard of the cowboys of Ringsend. I do know, however, that Queens is sometimes called the thirty-third county. It's been said that as the music ends for the night in Clifden, it's just getting started in Woodside.

Sandra: Thanks.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: fretless
Date: 18 Sep 08 - 09:50 AM

I thought Arlo was the last of the Brooklyn cowboys.

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Sep 08 - 08:27 AM

yah! another Steve Suffet CD to add to my collection

sandra

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: Paul Burke
Date: 18 Sep 08 - 07:55 AM

Don't forget the Cowboys of Ringsend in Dublin (from Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds):

We regret to announce, said the Freeman's Journal, the passing of Mr William Tracey, the eminent novelist,... A man of culture and old-world courtesy, his passing will be regretted by all without distinction of creed or class, and in particular by the world of letters, which he has adorned with distinction for many years. He was the first man in Europe to exhibit twenty-nine lions in a cage at the same time and the only writer to demonstrate that cowpunching could be economically carried on in Ringsend. His best known works were 'Red Flanagan's Last Throw', 'Flower O' The Prairy', and 'Jake's Last Ride'. Deceased was 59.

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: Leadfingers
Date: 18 Sep 08 - 07:26 AM

If Rochdale (Lancashire) could have a Cowboy , Why NOT Brooklyn as well !

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: open mike
Date: 18 Sep 08 - 01:14 AM

yee haw!

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: catspaw49
Date: 17 Sep 08 - 07:28 PM

Well if not Ramblin Jack, then I figured this was The Brooklyn Cowboy hanging out, so to speak, in Times Square.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: GUEST,Dave MacKenzie
Date: 17 Sep 08 - 07:21 PM

Here's me thinking that the "Brooklyn Cowboy" was Ramblin' Jack Elliott!

Subject: RE: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: oldhippie
Date: 17 Sep 08 - 07:01 PM

And, you're probably not the "Subway Cowboy" that Christine Lavin sdings about either.

"He was born in Brooklyn
Went to school in Queens
Now he lives on Staten Island
He only wears blue jeans
He wanted to be a blacksmith
But no jobs could be found
So he took enployment
Driving trains underground

He's a subway cowboy.....etc.

Subject: Enter the Brooklyn Cowboy
From: Suffet
Date: 17 Sep 08 - 06:23 PM

Enter the Brooklyn (New York) Cowboy

Howdy, pardner!

OK, I live in Queens, not Brooklyn, and I'm not a cowboy. But I was born in Brooklyn, I lived there 1968-1969, I spent most of my working life there until I got unceremoniously laid off five years ago, and I still work there one day a week.

As for the cowboy stuff, well I used to go riding horses on a dude ranch until advancing age and a couple of bouts with an inflamed prostate got the best of me. So now I have to settle for singing cowboy songs. In fact, I finally recorded one, and it's a real rootin' shootin' humdinger called The Santa Fe Trail. It will be on my new CD, Low Rent District, which should be ready by the end of the month. Right now you can hear a sneak preview on-line. You can even download it and it won't cost you one shiny silver dime. Just mosey on down to my SoundClick music page by clicking here and it will be the first one at the top.

But first, here's a little background. James Grafton Rogers and John H. Gower wrote The Santa Fe Trail and they had it published it in 1911. I first heard the song from my good buddy Anne Price, and I immediately stole it. Yet, in spite of this brazen act of musicial thievery, she was gracious enough to sing back-up on the refrains. Anne, by the way, had already recorded her version of The Santa Fe Trail on her Rember Me CD few years back. It's available from CD Baby.

In case you find a couple of the terms puzzling, please be advised that tow headed means blonde, while a quirt is a small whip for prodding a horse.

Oh, here is some credit where credit is due. That's me on the guitar, Allen Hopkins is on the harmonica, and Ray Korona did the mixing and mastering. Enjoy the preview while you can. I reckon I'll be taking it down once my new CD is in hand.

That's about all for now. The Old Woman (my wife Marilyn) is out rustling up some grub for dinner, and should be back at any moment.

--- Steve