Cowboy Nation was part of an ongoing series of musical collaborations between brothers Tony and Chip Kinman, who had previously led

The Dils The Dils were an American punk rock band formed 1976 and active until 1980, originally from Carlsbad, California, and fronted by the brothers Chip Kinman and Tony Kinman. They appeared as the second act in the "battle of the bands" sequence in ...

Rank and File Rank and file may refer to: *A military term relating to the horizontal " ranks" (rows) and vertical " files" (columns) of individual foot-soldiers, exclusive of the officers *A term derived from the above used to refer to enlisted troops, as oppo ...

, and Blackbird. The band released three albums between 1997 and 2002.

Description and reception

As the name suggests, Cowboy Nation was devoted to

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

songs and other material that portrayed the Old West. As Tony Kinman stated, "Musically and thematically, Cowboy Nation is an extremely distilled version of Rank and File. The music is minimalist and the theme is cowboy/western. One guitar, one bass, and two-thirds of a drum kit. Plus Chip and I singing." As with the Kinmans' previous efforts, the singing featured the harmonies of Tony's baritone and Chip's tenor. Music writer Chris Morris described the Kinmans' career path. From the Dils, a "politico-punk unit", "the brothers did an about-face and formulated the pioneering

cowpunk Cowpunk (or country punk) is a subgenre of punk rock that began in the United Kingdom and Southern California in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It combines punk rock or new wave with country, folk, and blues in its sound, lyrical subject mat ...

band Rank and File...after that group folded, they gravitated to a harsher, almost industrial sound in Blackbird...Now they have done another volte-face with Cowboy Nation." Morris quoted Chip Kinman: "If it can't be played sitting around a campfire, it's not on the record." Tony Kinman's 2018 obituary in the ''Los Angeles Times'' underscored the themes of how the brothers frequently shifted gears and moved counter to prevailing musical currents. It quoted a prior report on Cowboy Nation in the ''Colorado Springs Independent'': "Once again, the Kinmans leave us, delightedly, unable to categorize them." In reviewing the group's second album, ''A Journey Out of Time'', ''Country Standard Time'' stated, "Cowboy Nation...with their unpretentious lyrics and their provocatively dark sound, have produced a heartfelt homage to the cowboy." The ''Chicago Tribune'' observed of the final album, ''Cowgirl A-Go-Go'', "Its 11 loping, authentic-as-a-saddle tracks, delivered in Tony's distinctive baritone, view the present-day world through a bygone-days prism." Cowboy Nation performed at the inaugural

Stagecoach Festival Stagecoach Festival is an annual country music festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. Organized by Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of AEG Presents, it is a sister event to the Coac ...

in 2007. At that time, they were described as coming out of semi-retirement. Cowboy Nation was Tony Kinman's final band. Chip Kinman continued with Chip Kinman and PCH in 2007, followed by Ford Madox Ford in 2016.

Personnel

* Tony Kinman (bass, vocals) * Chip Kinman (guitar, harmonica, vocals) * "Taco" John Norman (drums) * Jamie Spidle (drums)

Discography

* ''Cowboy Nation'' (Coconut Grove Recording Co., 1997). Re-released as ''We Do What We Please'' (Real West Productions, 2001). * ''A Journey Out of Time'' (Western Jubilee/Shanachie, 2000) * ''Cowgirl A-Go-Go'' (Paras Group International, 2002)

References

{{reflist

External links

Allmusic.com
American country music groups American alternative country groups Musical groups established in 1997