Cowboy Johnson

better days______www.coopradio.org
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Cowboy Johnson and I sat out on his screened-in porch
one morning last summer in Austin, Texas, and talked
about things to do with being a man.

There's lots to talk about, and friendship aplenty.

We've both got a fair amount of mileage on us now, and
that's all right. The questions and the humour only get
better with age. The music we make gets better.

He put out his first record in 2004, called A Grain Of Sand,
a tribute to the late American songwriter, Mickey Newbury.
It's a beauty of a record, too, full of love and goodness. His
voice has a whole new depth of feeling under the melody.
You can listen a bit at http://www.cowboyjohnson.com
and you'll regularly hear Cowboy on my radio show as well.

After we played at the Mickey Newbury Gathering last June,
Cowboy and I shared some gigs around Austin and towns
nearby. We even did a gig at Buckeye's Beer Bait n Tackle
out in the hill country, which turned out to be the professional
debut of Mickey's youngest daughter, Laura Shayne Newbury.

A few days later, Cowboy played at Willie Nelson's annual
Fourth of July Picnic at the Stockyards in Fort Worth, and
Laura Shayne was called on stage to duet with him on her
daddy's Sweet Memories. Boy, that was fine. I couldn't help
but think to myself that two nights before he played for thirty
wild-ass river people in a tackle shop out in the sticks, and that
here he is in front of thirty thousand, the same humble man.

It was Cowboy's idea to wave her on there to sing with him.
He's generous that way. He may not write a lot of songs, but
he has a deep understanding of poetry in life.

I'm happy to say that Cowboy Johnson is a friend of mine.

That screened-in porch of his in Austin had chairs and it was hot
and we sat laughing and crying, rocking back and forth there
with our clothes sticking to us, and we talked about all the things
that have to do with being a man.