{"podcast":{"title":"American Songcatcher","slug":"american-songcatcher-688699","podcast_index_feed_id":688699,"rss_url":"https://rss.libsyn.com/shows/597330/destinations/5194670.xml","website_url":"http://www.americansongcatcher.com","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/2/a/3/8/2a38672ff32e18e2d959afa2a1bf1c87/AS-20251023-n6dhvh57fq.png","author":"Nicholas Edward Williams","episode_count":53,"summary":"Tracing the roots of American music from its cultured past to artists playing it forward, folk musician, musicologist and host Nicholas Edward Williams takes listeners on a unique documentary-style podcast experience. Dive into the stories of centuries-old Traditional songs and migrants who carried their musical heritage here, and uncover the lives of pioneers and integral musicians who created and shaped styles such as Bluegrass, Ragtime, Jazz and Swing, Country, Gospel, Blues, Old-Time, and the Folk music that's derived from it all. Here's to the songs of old, may they live on forever.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-10T08:21:59.502875+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/american-songcatcher-688699"},"episode":{"title":"LOCAL FOCAL // Cowboy Song Collector Jack Thorp","slug":"local-focal-cowboy-song-collector-jack-thorp","published_at":"2023-07-08T09:05:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/american-songcatcher-688699/local-focal-cowboy-song-collector-jack-thorp","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/american-songcatcher-688699","url":"https://a1526ccb-749b-4804-ba7b-a9ed7525149e.libsyn.com/local-focal-cowboy-song-collector-jack-thorp","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/a1526ccb-749b-4804-ba7b-a9ed7525149e/338120188-44100-2-2b921f0a06968.m4a?dest-id=5194670","summary":"Today, we proudly present the fourth installment of the LOCAL FOCAL series, where we're collaborating with artists around the country to share unique and lesser-known musical history. Our storyteller is cowboy & poet Andy Hedges , who hails from Lubbock, TX and is doing his part to keep the old cowboy song traditions alive. Andy takes us back to the late 1800's, in the vast Western plains to the first collector of cowboy songs, a roving Easterner by the name of Jack Thorp , who printed the first book of Folk Songs, titled Songs of the Cowboys in 1908, forever changing the scope and trajectory of western and cowboy music. In March 1889, Jack Thorp, a born-to-privilege Easterner who had grown into a leather-tough, saddle-wise trail hand, decided to track down the words to songs about cowboy life from cowboys singing in cow camps, at chuck wagons and line camps, in saloons—anywhere he could find them, mostly in New Mexico and Texas. His course proved crucial to the evolution of cowboy culture and the publication of his Songs of the Cowboys, the first collection of folk songs in America in 1908. Andy Hedges Website Andy's Podcast \"Cowboy Crossroads\" Roll On, Cowboys Jack Thorpe Support Independent Programming! Join the Patreon ! Send a one-time donation through Venmo or PayPal Follow: American Songcatcher Instagram | TikTok Credits : Nicholas Edward Williams - Editing, Recording and Distribution Andy Hedges - Narration","meta_description":"Today, we proudly present the fourth installment of the LOCAL FOCAL series, where we're collaborating with artists around the country to share unique and…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1115,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/american-songcatcher-688699/episodes/local-focal-cowboy-song-collector-jack-thorp/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/american-songcatcher-688699/local-focal-cowboy-song-collector-jack-thorp.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}