Old-time cowboys didn't sit around the campfire strumming guitars. Guitars were too big and fragile to take on the long drive. But some cowboys did pack small instruments like harmonicas and jew's harps. A lilting melody or two pierced the night air before an outfit collapsed into sleep. Off in the distance, night riders circled the herd in shifts, keeping watch on couple thousand bedded-down cows. And while he rode guard, the night rider often sang or hummed to the sleeping cattle. Somehow his voice reassured the cows and kept them from being spooked by noises in the night.

In those solitary moments, night riders sang or recited almost anything that came to mind--a lullaby, a passage from the Bible, even labels memorized from canned foods. The lyrics didn't matter much to the cows. Cowboys oftend made up new words to old melodies, words that told about their own lives. Some songs were picked up by other cowboys, who added their own words. That's how songs like "Texas Cowboys" were born.

Life on the plains required the cowboy to be touch, but he could also be tender. Sometimes the cowboy expressed his affection for the herd in a song like "Git Along Little Dogies."