Western Swing: A hallmark of American music culture

Western Swing came out of roads, labor, radio, dance halls, and the hard-won pleasures of ordinary life across the American Southwest. It was not only music to dance to, but a way of carrying the life of a people in sound.

Cowboy Libretto studies Western Swing as both music and cultural evidence. Through essays on its history, artists, and social world, the project looks closely at the conditions that gave rise to the genre and the people who made it endure.