What is Western Music?

This is a fairly common question and even though I have my own thoughts on the subject, I decided to do a little Facebook survey. Several western music singers and song writers and a few other friends responded.  This was enlightening!

Some of the opinions are:

Western music is about western culture; songs about the way of life that made this country great.

Western music can be sung in Church and you wouldn’t be embarrassed by the words.

The songs in Western music encompass the land, people and events throughout history that make up this whole experience we call THE WEST.

The difference between country and western is the topic of the music: country is mainly about relationships, family, non-ranch jobs, while western is about the land, history, appreciation for the fundamental things that make us westerners, regardless of our location.

Western music is "I love my horse and my wife." and Country music is: "I love this bar and someone else's wife."

Western music is about mountains and deserts, towering ponderosas and sprawling prickly pear cactus. It’s about the unique weather we have that no other part of the country experiences like the dry heat that seems to go on forever and the violent monsoons that fill dry arroyos with rushing walls of water. It’s about finding someone else who loves the West and then sharing a life and trying to make a living in a place that is both unforgiving and unspoiled. It is about the people, places and experiences that make this part of the world a wonderful and challenging place to live and work.

The music most often includes cowboys, horses and cattle, but you’ll also hear songs about outlaws, lawmen, coyotes, dust and wind.

For the record, here is the "definition" the Western Music Assn. Board adopted (but not created) for our reference to Neilsen: "western music - the artistic science of creating vocal and instrumental sounds to produce harmony and expression of emotion through beauty of form relating to living in, origination from, or descriptively representing the historical, imagined or present American West, its landscape, lifestyle or its inhabitants."

Thank you to Patty Clayton, Juni Fisher, John Bergstrom, William Merritt, Mike Moutoux, Brenda Libby, Mag Mawhinney, Almeda M. Bradshaw, Randy Huston, Vic Anderson, Terry Ruebush, David Fisher and Jean Tupper for supplying the statements above.

Also included in the Western Music genre is Western Swing Music.  The best definition of Western Swing I have seen is by long time Western Music Disc Jockey Mike Gross.  His definition is “An American music form born in Texas and Oklahoma in the 1930’s.  It’s an amalgamation of Scotch/Irish fiddle music, New Orleans jazz and Black blues and it evolved in the 1940’s parallel to Big Band Swing.  It uses fiddles, mandolins, guitars and steel guitars, in lieu of or along with trumpets, reeds and trombones.  The words and vocals tend toward the light happy side.  Over the years, there have been many different groups with varied and different styles playing what can be considered Western Swing music.  In addition, many artists in other fields of music have recorded Western Swing songs and used Western Swing style musicians and sounds.”

My take on Western Music is that it is very basic, down to earth music.  The songs tell a story, either a personal experience or one heard from Grandpa or the old man who has worked on the ranch for years. These stories range from life’s struggles to funny, happy memories. They may be sad like those about the death of a family member, friend or horse but they always have a positive message.  These songs many times are taken from cowboy poetry that may be from the 1800s or brand new. The music is usually basic as well…guitars (sometimes alone), stand up base, harmonic and maybe Jerry’s Washtub but all acoustic…very little amplification but played by incredibly talented folks.  When listening to this music you can imagine yourself sitting around a campfire being entertained.

The singers and songwriters are as down to earth as the music.  They are people who genuinely care about what they sing.  Most of them have a real connection with the earth and western way of life.  They may sing old songs or ones recently written by themselves or current song writers. I have truly enjoyed meeting many of these artists and adding them to collection of talented friends!

It is my pleasure to bring this music to you on AM 1230 KOTS every Wednesday morning from 10:00 til noon.  You can hear a variety of cowboy music, western swing and cowboy poetry because I truly enjoy the mix. I hope you do too!  We will be having more “house concerts” starting in the spring so stay tuned for announcements regarding who, when and where.  Please join us for some great entertainment.  For more information about the artists log onto www.RealWestOldWest.com.

Totsie Slover  realwestoldwest@live.com