Re: [Harp-L] Cowboy/Western Harmonica

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In response to a query on "Cowboy" harmonica Winslow wrote:
> A lot of what you hear in movies was written for Hollywood by Hollywood 
> composers.

There wasn't that much cowboy music that didn't originate in Hollywood in 
the first place.  It was a highly artificial form to begin with, though 
often very beautiful.  There were earlier crazes for such songs, especially 
in places where cowboys didn't hang out, like eastern cities.  Songs 
written by professional songwriters in the early part of the 20th century 
seeped into the folk culture of Southern and Western America via sheet 
music and then recordings and radio.  In much the same way that American 
gangsters fashioned themselves after movie gangsters, it is not totally 
unlikely that Cowboy culture was at least partly designed by the dime 
novelists and adopted by those hardworking guys in the beef business.

The 'folk process' was and is alive in Cowboy Music.

An even more slick, professional and totally enjoyable music was created 
for Western genre films in the 1930's-40's by groups like the Sons of the 
Pioneers and Gene Autry's writers.

Probably the most popular Cowboy song of all time is Don't Fence Me In, 
which was written by Cole Porter, who did his cowboyin' on the French 
Riviera.  I have not seen that many shows of cowboy music, but that song 
was played in every single one of them.  'I'm An Old Cowhand From The Rio 
Grande' is of course a comedy song written for a movie by Johnny Mercer, 
and is likely the second most popular Cowboy song in terms of the ASCAP 
performance count.  'The Streets of Laredo', 'Lorena' and the like sound 
like they were written by people who had spent more time in the Brill 
Building than in the saddle.  I love those songs.  (I worked for Marty 
Robbins for a very short time, during which I got to sing the middle part 
on El Paso, though only in rehearsal.  Tell me I'm not at least sort of cool.)

While there is, according to our go-to guy Winslow, a dearth of harmonica 
on the recordings of what is called "Cowboy Songs", I seem to recall a 
bunch of harmonica in low-grade western movie soundtracks, from a childhood 
spent ridin' the range in front of the ol' Motorola.

I'll bet that Tommy Morgan played on a bunch of Western soundtracks.  (He 
plays some unbelieveable harmonica on the score of Seven Brides For Seven 
Brothers.  Some of the best I have ever heard.  In any genre.)

In the seventies I recorded with a couple of Cowboy singers, on seperate 
sessions, who were absolutely incredible.  Their original music was 
unmistakeably of the Hollywood Cowboy Music genre, but they were both guys 
who had spent years doing actual cowboying, one in Wyoming and the other I 
know not where.  I do not recall their names, and their recordings were not 
big hits.

It seems so logical that real, actual 19th century ranch hands and cowboys 
would have played harmonica.  Maybe that's just a picture in my mind from 
all those movies, but if not then I would love to know what it was like.