Otto Gray and his Oklahoma Cowboys were the first nationally famous cowboy western music band in the United States, and the first cowboy band to appear on the cover of ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' (June 6, 1931). Formed in

Ripley, Oklahoma Ripley is a town in southeastern Payne County, Oklahoma, United States.

in the early 1920s, the band was first known as McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band, for the leader, Billy McGinty, a well-known cowboy, former

Rough Rider The Rough Riders was a nickname given to the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish–American War and the only one to see combat. The United States Army was small, understaffed, and diso ...

, and world champion rider with

Buffalo Bill William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, Bison hunting, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa, Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but ...

's show. The band members were authentic cowboys from ranches in and around Ripley. Their first promoter, George Youngblood, introduced them saying, "I wish to say of this bunch of cowboys that they are not only good fiddlers, but can ride or rope anything that has horns, hide or hair." After McGinty left to become the postmaster of Ripley, Otto Gray (1884–1967), took over as bandleader as well as manager. With the extensive traveling generated from their popularity, the original band members dropped out to stay with their jobs and families. Gray filled their places with professional musicians willing to spend most of their time on the road. Playing on the

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

circuits in the Midwest and Northeast, and nationwide over some 130 radio stations, they played the first

cowboy music Western music is a form of country music composed by and about the people who settled and worked throughout the Western United States and Western Canada. Western music celebrates the lifestyle of the cowboy on the open ranges, Rocky Mountains, an ...

most Americans outside of the West had ever heard. One of their most popular tunes was "Midnight Special", performed by member Dave "Pistol Pete" Cutrell; Cutrell's "Pistol Pete's Midnight Special" with McGinty's band was also the first version of "Midnight Special" ever recorded. The band lasted until the early

1930s File:1930s decade montage.png, From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson shows the effects of the Great Depression; due to extreme drought conditions, farms across the south-central United States become dry a ...

when economic situations led them to disband.

Selected discography

:Original recording dates.The Online Discographical Project
/ref> :

References

Bibliography

*Chlouber, Carla. "Otto Gray and his Oklahoma Cowboys: The Country's First Commercial Western Band". ''Chronicles of Oklahoma'', (Winter, 1997–98) 75:4 356-383. *Cohen, Norm. ''Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong''. University of Illinois Press (2nd ed), 2000. *Kite, Steve

''Oklahoma Audio Almanac''. Oklahoma State University, May 9, 2001. *McRill, Leslie A
"Music in Oklahoma by the Billy McGinty Cowboy Band"
''Chronicles of Oklahoma'', (Spring, 1960) 38:1 66-74. *Otto Gray's Oklahoma Cowboys. ''Early Cowboy Band''. British Archive of Country Music, CD D 139, 2006. *Russell, Tony. ''Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942''. Oxford University Press, 2004. *Shirley, Glen
"Daddy of the Cowboy Bands
''Oklahoma Today'' (Fall 1959), 9:4 6-7, 29. *Wolfe, Charles K. and James E. Akenson (eds). ''Women of Country Music: A Reader''. University Press of Kentucky, 2003.

External links

Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Gray, Otto and His Oklahoma Cowboys
{{Authority control updated link Music of Oklahoma Culture of the Western United States Gennett Records artists Okeh Records artists