SOURCE: “The Dying Cowboy Song,” in Western American Literature, Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring, 1967, pp. 50‐57.

In the following essay, Barsness disputes the authenticity of the cowboy songs made famous by such collectors as John A. Lomax, arguing that the songs are overly sentimental and romantic. Barsness asserts that the songs lack authenticity and hardly reflect the life of the real working cowboy.

Come all you good old cowboys                     And listen to my rhymes— We are West of Eastern Texas                     And mostly men of crimes. … 

—“cowboy” song

For most of the twentieth century the so‐called cowboy song has been generally accepted as an authentic area of American folklore. In such collections of songs as those of John and Alan Lomax a wide variety of western lyrics and music has long been accepted as true folk‐material of a distinctly distinguishable American subculture, although there are frequently startling differences among the...