Description
Book SynopsisTracing the singing cowboy's roots in the performance tradition of blackface minstrelsy and its literary antecedents in novels, magazine fiction, and the novels of B M Bower, this title shows how silent cinema conventions, the developing commercial music media, and the prevailing conditions of film production shaped the 'horse opera' of the 1930s.
Trade Review"Isn't just a lively and entertaining round-up of movies about warbling cowboys, it's also a comment on how such a bizarre trend began... Stanfield expertly plumbs the subject, presenting a view on these films from the perspective of keen moviegoer and adept media commentator. In penning such a thought-provoking volume, the author stands in for the viewer, giving the reader an opportunity to be an audience member by proxy, and to hear, faintly, the twang of guitars and Gene Autry's yodeling." -- Elizabeth Millard, Foreword Magazine "Stanfield's deft analysis expands the detailed descriptions of singing cowboys in Bill Malone's various books... Recommended." -- Choice "Stanfield provides a strong foray into this topic, one that should be considered requisite for any cultural scholar of the early twentieth century." --The Velvet Light Trap
