My Dad is a Cowboy Singer

Cowboy singer J Parson performs at the Monterey Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival on December 12.

Telling other children my dad was a cattle rancher got me a reputation as something of a farm boy among my school friends. I remember my severe reluctance during the few times a year when I’d have to get on a horse and help push cattle for a few hours. After the grown-ups would sort the cattle and the calves were ready to get branded and castrated maybe I’d hold the nut bucket. Or, if help wasn’t needed with flanking the calves I’d be tasked with collecting the excised bovine scrota to count at the end of the round-up.

Some nights my dad would come in after feeding the horses, sit down in the kitchen or living room and start playing guitar and singing Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins and maybe a little George Strait. Maybe six years ago he started playing his songs for larger audiences. Soon enough he was singing the National Anthem at a rodeo, singing the theme song for a western-themed cooking show and flying to shows across the country. My dad was meeting cowboys with facial hair so flagrant they made my dad’s graying red mustache seem unassuming by comparison.

This weekend I traveled up to Monterey, CA this weekend to see my dad sing cowboy songs and absorb the strange culture of cowboy poetry and music. People with the most elaborate western clothing you’ve ever seen, accented with brilliant silver and immaculate leather fringe, flooded a convention center in downtown Monterey to listen to cowboys sing about being cowboys.

I hadn’t seen my dad perform in front of a large audience for years, if ever. For someone who talks slower than I do (and that’s pretty slow), my dad’s stage presence surprised me. He was making jokes like the 500 people in the audience – mostly gray-haired retirees in pristine beaver fur cowboy hats – were really just us family. And, when his set was over, a bunch of cowboys shouted in gravelly voices for one more song.