The Dodge City Cow-Boy Band – The Americus Brass Band

The Cow-Boy Band’s repertoire featured the popular songs, marches, opera selections and patriotic songs that comprised the standard brass band repertoire of the era.  Cowboy songs like “Goodbye Old Paint” and “Git Along Little Dogies,” that we now associate with the ‘old west’ were simple work songs sung by young men doing a difficult job on the range.  Even if that music had been known to the general public (and it was not), it would not have been considered appropriate to include in the band concerts that represented the “highest” culture available on the frontier.

The “Did Did Polka,” “Helter Skelter Gallop” and “Camptown Races” were popular songs from the saloons of Dodge City, where most of the band’s musicians worked. Nineteenth century audiences also loved solos by members of the band. The Concertino by Ernst Sachse was actually written for the Eb Cornet, but might have been played by any instrument in the band. Opera selections remained staples of the brass band repertoire from before the Civil War until well into the twentieth century. The Dodge City Cow-Boy Band played several operatic pieces on every concert and often featured vocal soloists as well.  Handel’s “See the Congu’ring Hero Comes” was a popular selection and was Buffalo Bill’s theme song in his Wild West show.

Another type of music that was a particularly important part of the Dodge City Band’s repertoire in the 1890s was the “descriptive potpourri.” The band played several such extended suites, two of which were “Recollections of the War” and “The Life of Creede.” Both pieces tell stories through music: the first, a battle in the Civil War; the second, a miner who strikes it rich in Colorado.  “The Life of Creede” (also known as “A Miner’s Luck)” was the centerpiece of the Cow-Boy Band’s repertoire in the 1890’s. The band’s leader, Jack Sinclair, commissioned the music along with an expensive set of eighteen, beautifully painted, “oleo” back-drops that were rolled down behind the band during the performance.  Each oleo portrayed a scene being performed by the bandsmen so that by the end of the piece, the audience had experienced a visual as well as musical treat.  The Descriptive Potpourri was certainly an inspiration for the movies that would soon follow.  But brass bands played marches and patriotic music more successfully than any other genre. The “Review Quick Step” and “Vailliance Polka Militaire” were marches left over from the Civil War era but were still popular with audiences.

The Cow-Boy Band’s instruments were also representative of the era.  The application of the French piston valve was a major improvement in brass instrument design that otherwise hadn’t changed much since the Civil War.   Piston valved cornets, valved trombones and the helicon bass horn represented the most “up-to-date” instruments in the Cow-Boy band’s inventory.

There is little question that brass bands like the Dodge City Cow-Boy Band played an important role in bringing desperately needed artistic culture and entertainment to the frontier.  What is less known is that in 1915, Jack Sinclair brought his Cowboy Band to Los Angeles and their concerts may have influenced a whole new entertainment industry based on the concept of the “romance of the west,” the Western Movie.