A singing cowboy was a subtype of the archetypal cowboy hero of early Western films. It references real-world campfire side ballads in the American frontier, the original cowboys sang of life on the trail with all the challenges, hardships, and dangers encountered while pushing cattle for miles up the trails and across the prairies. This continues with modern vaquero traditions and within the genre of Western music, and its related New Mexico, Red Dirt, Tejano, and Texas country music styles. A number of songs have been written and made famous by groups like the Sons of the Pioneers and Riders in the Sky and individual performers such as Marty Robbins, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, Bob Baker and other "singing cowboys". Singing in the wrangler style, these entertainers have served to preserve the cowboy as a unique American hero.
Gene Autry, 1942
Gene Autry ca. 1950
Roy Rogers and Mary Hart in Shine On, Harvest Moon (1938)
The Gene Autry Show (1950)
Roy Rogers, nicknamed the King of the Cowboys, was an American singer, actor, television host, and rodeo performer.
Rogers in The Carson City Kid, 1940
Rogers's boyhood home at Duck Run, near Lucasville, Ohio
Lynne Roberts and Rogers in Billy the Kid Returns, 1938
Publicity photo of Rogers and Mary Hart for Shine On, Harvest Moon, 1938