Faux Fu

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Whatever Happened to the Singing Cowboy?


It's Easter Sunday, a day that has special resonance for me, "you can do what's never been done, you could sing what's never been sung." I mean, people can do some amazing things - the worst, the best and everything in between. I imagine a big stone, rolling from the entrance of a tomb, and brother, strange as it seems, it's blast off time!

If we can imagine it, can it become a reality?

So, of course, I'm asking myself this morning, "what ever happened to the Singing Cowboy?" Gene Autry was the man. He was the mold. They didn't break it, they just tweaked it over the years, and eventhough Autry kind of morphed along the way, (I mean there's a continuum from Autry to Roy Rodgers,to Bob Wills, to Johnny Cash, to Willie Nelson - my favorite singing cowboy smokes weed, has hair down to his waist and plays an old guitar with a big gaping hole in it!), that original Autry DNA can be traced from the latest to the first.

I remember watching Autry and then Rodgers on Saturday morning, roping, riding, and improbably, singing. The happy go lucky cowboy, always doing the right thing, staying in tune, and in key.

So yes, the Singing Cowboy lives...Autry rides again, and again, (I mean he is risen!), and as they say, you can't keep a good man down.

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