Sing, Cowboy, Sing!

Singing cowboy songs at entertainment at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) mobile
camp for migratory farm workers. Odell, Oregon, 1941 (Russell Lee/Library of Congress)

(Wild West) A silvery moon, a sleeping herd, a lonely cowboy riding night guard, crooning a soft cowboy song to soothe the cattle in the long hours before dawn. Such is the ingrained image of the singing cowboy, fixed in our collective imagination by a thousand stories, songs, books and films.
Did it really happen? Continued