The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #120527 Message #2622219
Posted By: Stilly River Sage
30-Apr-09 - 05:57 PM
Thread Name: Yiddish cowboys
Subject: RE: Yiddish cowboys
There's actually quite a lot of it.
I used to hear a radio program in New York City on WKCR-FM (and WBAI-FM) called "Cowboy Joe's Radio Ranch." The period was the late 1970s, early 1980s. It played on NPR for a while. WKCR was a station with lots of little specialized programs, and is out of Columbia University. The same guy did a program called "Cajun Jamboree." Paul Aaron. I remember that he was very proud to have been awarded the Western Heritage Wrangler Award for his contribution to cowboy music collecting and scholarship. This came from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, OK.
I did a search and came up with a short mention in the New York Times from 1997:
UPPER WEST SIDE
Cowboy Joe Rides Again At the Lincoln Center Ranch
Both country and Western music will get their turns in the spotlight at the Lincoln Center plaza on Thursday night in the Midsummer Night Swing series.
The audience will be able to "watch" a radio show as Cowboy Joe (also known as Paul Aaron, pictured below) recreates his award-winning "Cowboy Joe's Radio Ranch," which was broadcast for 12 years on WKCR-FM in New York and around the country on National Public Radio. The Cowboy Joe show featured Western swing from the likes of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, as well as cattleman lore and humor.
Before the show, Meredith Stead and John Knapp will give country and Western swing dance lessons at 6:30 P.M. And after the show, the Nashville band BR5-49 (taking their name from the phone number for Junior Sample's used car lot on "Hee Haw") will take the stage.
"Cowboy Joe's Radio Ranch," Lincoln Center Plaza; 8:15 P.M. Thursday; dance lessons, 6:30 P.M. to 7:30 P.M.; Cowboy Joe, 8:15 P.M.; BR5-49, 9:15 P.M.; $9; (212) 875-5000.
I just put in an old cassette tape of one of the programs. His theme song was "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" and he had lots of versions of it. Anyway, I remember hearing one program with a New York City Yiddish Cowboy band that performed live on the studio.
I find an email paulacowboyjoe@aol.com on a page that was (apparently) last updated in 2004.
That's about as much as I can squeeze out of a net search. I might have some of the performance on a tape; if I do I'll add more information as I come across it.
SRS