The Days Of Old In The
Old West- The “Black Cowboy” And His Songs Via Smithsonian/Folkways
By Sarah Lemoyne
Recently in a film
review of Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden’s iconic and twisted Western cowboy
classic Johnny Guitar I noted that I
had heard on National Public Radio a piece about the work of a member of the
Carolina Chocolate Drops who I do know putting together a compilation of
recordings, originals and his own take, of the black cowboy song experience for
Smithsonian/Folkways. I mentioned and gave that film as a prime example of how
the black cowboy had been written out of everything from dime store novels to
“oaters.” That was not the case and the black cowboy in the post-Civil War,
post-hell Reconstruction period in its aftermath played an honorable role in
“taming the West.” Listen up.
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/04/23/black-cowboys-music-dom-flemons
