Why the Cowboy Sings

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Website:	Click to view
Length:	56 minutes, 46 seconds.
Released:	December 6th, 2001
Available in:	VHS, DVD

The cowboy's job has always been dangerous, lonely, dusty, gory and low-paying. So why do cowboys make music, and why do they need to tell their story? "Why the Cowboy Sings" is a journey across the open West to explore this unique genre of folk art.

Co-producer Hal Cannon has been chasing this question for 30 years. He is a founder of the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada and has played cowboy music in a traditional band since the early 1970s. In this journey he travels to four ranches, in the middle of winter, to visit cowboys during a season when they have more time to sing.

"Most people in our dizzying modern lives have precious little to sing about. The cowboy does, and with such passion that maybe it's a life worth examining. Not for the hackneyed and cliched, but for what is real and authentic," says Cannon. "On the journey, we meet true cowboys and hear their songs and stories. In the end we discover American values that have been drowned out by modern urban life.

"Why the Cowboy Sings" was produced by Hal Cannon and Taki Telonidis. Doug Monroe was director of photography; Bill Lauer, editor; William Montoya, sound mix; Scott Chaffin, John Howe and Elizabeth Searles, executive producers.

"Why the Cowboy Sings," a Western Folklife Center film produced in conjunction with KUED-7, was funded by the George S. and Delores Doré Eccles Foundation, the R. Harold Burton Foundation, the Dick Burton Foundation, Anne Pattee, and Wes and Sue Dixon.

"Why the Cowboy Sings" sponsors:

	R. Harold Burton Foundation