Backstage, I ask if he's seen a rising interest in cowboy music. I'm the Charlie Parker of cowboy music. His friends burst out laughing. At 1 AM., when the dance ends, everyone meets in an upstairs room at Stockmen's Motor Hotel, where cowboys drink, sing, play guitars, recite poetry and perform rope tricks. At 6 in the morning, a group of us head to the coffee shop for breakfast.
Every seat is taken.
I want to tell my friends back home about this, but I'm afraid everyone will come. Everyone did come. I went to the first annual ever convention of cowboy bards. They had come from the ranches and cowtowns, their poetry burstin' their brains And any poor fool on a corner or stool was subjected to endless refrains. I have been eating beef hearts all my life.