Presentation Explores Cowboy Folksongs

Members of the community are invited to attend the free program to be held Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 10 a.m. in the Hubbard Welcome Center on the Butler of El Dorado campus. The program is made possible by the Kansas Humanities Council.

Cowboy folk songs were more than entertainment on the lonely prairie. They told the story of a way of work that has since changed radically. Hoy will discuss the musical culture of yesterday’s cattle drivers and why their trail-driving, night-herding, and bunkhouse/chuck wagon songs still appeal to Kansas ranchers of today.

An authority on the folk life of ranching, Jim Hoy is a professor of English and the director of the Center for Great Plains Studies at Emporia State University. He has lectured internationally on the folk life of ranching and is the co-author of “Plains Folk,” a syndicated newspaper column.  

“The cowboy has become an internationally recognized symbol of America, and his music gives us insight into how this icon developed,” said Hoy.

“Singing the Cattle North” is part of the Kansas Humanities Council’s The Way We Worked Speakers Bureau, featuring presentations and discussions examining the theme of work and working in Kansas and how these stories help define us.  

The Kansas Humanities Council conducts and supports community-based programs, serves as a financial resource through an active grant-making program, and encourages Kansans to engage in the civic and cultural life of their communities.

For more information about KHC programs contact the Kansas Humanities Council at 785.357.0359 or visit www.kansashumanities.org. For more information about “Singing the Cattle North” contact Trisha Walls with Life Enrichment at 316.218.6355.