In America…and especially in the south…there’s an expression we use to describe a trend or fad that’s really catching on. We say something like “yeah, there’s one on every corner”. It just means you can find it anywhere.

Back in the 80’s I was living in the Houston, Texas area, and there was a big urban cowboy phenomenon. It seemed like every guy wanted to wear a cowboy hat and drive a cool truck. Outlaw country music by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, and others was big, too. I oughta know. My brother and I were playing the music scene then, and we got requests for those songs everywhere we went.

I didn’t adopt the cowboy hat look, but I did have some really cool boots, jeans, and a few snazzy “cowboy” stage shirts. Of course, it didn’t hurt that I sort of had the same outlaw look of those guys I mentioned before…long hair, beard, mustache.

When I started seeing fashion stores pop up with “the cowboy look”, I just couldn’t take it anymore. It seemed a bit like an insult to real cowboys who work hard and aren’t trying to make some sort of fashion statement. After all…most of the urban cowboys had never seen a ranch, much less ever worked on one.

So, I wrote a song about it. I never recorded it, so I don’t have an audio version to share. And I’ve been trying to remember the melody this evening, but I can’t. I think I may have sung it only a couple of times, and it wasn’t very good, but it blipped on my radar today, so I figured I’d share it with you. Put on your ten gallon hat and check out…

Cowboy On Every Corner

Have you seen lately, as you go your busy way,
The latest in fashion that all the people say
Is bound to be the standard of the day?
There’s just no mistakin’ when someone wears that style,
A hat, boots, and blue jeans…and a lopsided smile,
And then, no doubt, you’re set for awhile.

And there’s a cowboy on every corner.
There’s a little hay in everybody’s heart,
But if everyone becomes a cowboy
How we ever gonna tell us all apart?

It’s big in the city, there’s a store on every street.
It even shows up where the business people meet.
When somethin’s hot, you know it’s hard to beat.

And there’s a cowboy on every corner.
Every day they’re easier to find.
He’s surely not a dying legend…
At least not in the city cowboy’s mind.

There’s so much attention put into fashion names,
And there’s so many people who would play those games,
But a true-blooded cowboy would throw them in the flames.

And there’s a cowboy on every corner.
There’s a little hay in everybody’s heart,
But if everyone becomes a cowboy
How we ever gonna tell us all apart?

And there’s a cowboy on every corner.
Every day they’re easier to find.
He’s surely not a dying legend…
At least not in the city cowboy’s mind.

In Faith, Hope, and Love”