Cowboy Sutra Album Cover

Previewed today: information about the music and how to pre-order

Cowboy Sutra album cover by Edward Bateman

I’m privileged to have collaborated with Ed Bateman on several album covers and music videos. Ed is a brilliant, artist, photographer, friend, and teacher and I’ve always felt grateful our work resonates together.

After all the songs have been released on the Loose Cannon Boost, I will write an entire post about Ed Bateman and the process of conceiving this art. Here, he displays his passion for historic photography along with a playful romp with timelessness. We share a common belief that if we look and listen deeply we can travel in time and to any place in the universe without leaving home. The experience does not need to mystical but hopefully it will, at least, be pleasurable.

I trust you sense a common thread between the photographic image on the cover and my music. That has been the joy of working together to reinterpret the life and times of those early cowboys on the American frontier through our own personal lens.

Cowboy Sutra CD’s, Vinyl, Download, pre-order now

Please consider pre-ordering on Bandcamp

Or for European sales go to Lucky Dice Music in the Netherlands. CLICK HERE

The album will officially be released March 3, 2025 when anyone can listen on their favorite streaming service.

I feel like a chef, preparing a nine-course meal for you. You have been offered tastes of each course, each song, every week. We are halfway through the taste tests which include information about tradition, background of the song, the preparation and the list of ingredients. The meal itself will be presented to you on a platter, CD or vinyl, fresh from the range and garden. It is prepared especially for your table and I’d only ask you savor it in a single sitting with nice speakers or headphones. Do I ask for too much? “Bon Appetite,” or perhaps, “thanks for the grub.”

I founded Okehdokee Records, in 1972 to explore the American West in music. Increasingly, the music business has followed the “winner take all,” mentality that is pervasive in every business arena. It’s OK, we don’t mind swimming against the current.

with a paid subscription you get a signed and numbered vinyle edition or a CD, your choice.

The Cowboy Sutra concept

Sutra is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning string or thread. In this case, I see it as a way to stitch together truth and sentiment. These nine songs explore the beauty of old-style contemplative cowboy songs, mostly lamenting the passing of people, beloved animals, places, and times. I can’t explain why, but this music is strangely uplifting. I hope you agree. The record is dedicated with great respect to the legacy of three old West singers you’ve probably never heard of: Charlie Willis (1847-1930); W.M (Dick) Devoll (1877-1964); and Kenneth Ward Atwood (1898-1983).

I love old-style cowboy songs. In them, I hear a simple melodic beauty, heartfelt honesty, and a wide breadth of stylistic variation. Cowboy music has been interpreted over and over, reinvented with an overlay of everything from jazz, swing, and blues to luscious harmony singing. Cowboy music has proven its adaptability and lasting qualities. It has survived trail drives, Hollywood, Nashville, and all sorts of wacky interpretations, maybe even my own.

I sing all the songs on the album, and in many cases, have revised the words or tweaked the melodies. In addition to voice, the harmonium is the foundational instrument. You will also hear banjo, mandola, guitar, synthesizer, fretted oud, concertina, harmonica, and other instruments played by friends Deborah Robins on bass clarinet, Devon Lèger on hurdy-gurdy, my old music partner Greg Istock on piano, and Jon Neufeld on guitar. Jon also mixed and mastered the album with great sensitivity.

Some Background

In December 2022, I somehow ended up at a meditation retreat on a Hawaiian beach. Each night, my sister Carolyn and dear wife Teresa joined me in group chanting led by the great Kirtan singer Krishna Das. Over a week of nightly singing, I fell in love with his voice and the call-and-response togetherness. I also came to adore the resonance of the harmonium he played. When I got home, I purchased one made in India, but rather than chant the names of Hindu deities, I started singing old cowboy songs behind the drone of this mini-pump organ. I found I could explore possibilities in singing that are simply not available when you lay down a strict rhythm on a guitar or banjo. The harmonium is a meditative instrument, and those droll old cowboy songs are meditative too. Born out of the endless days following cattle up the trails, singing alone in the wilds on horseback, and at night, cowboys made songs that would soothe the cattle and the self. You can hear it in the earliest recordings of cowboys singing. The deepest roots of cowboy song come without accompaniment. Back in the day, songs were central to all sorts of physical work. But over time, most were drowned out by machines, including, dare I say it, musical instruments.

This loose Cannon’s Artist Statement

Mantra: Start simple and see where it takes you. Ground yourself in tradition and you will know how high you can fly. To write, read. To make music, listen. To make art, look around. Impatience and doubt are your enemies.