For those who are fans of world music, cowboy songs and just plain well-told stories, this really cool little piece coming from the NPR
archives is a real listening pleasure. The story examines a group of Mongolian herdsmen who traveled all the way to
Elko, NV, to hang out with some bona-fide American cowboys (albeit singing cowboys) and the two form a kind of bonding
experience about music and life on the range. And then as you’ll hear in this story, the cowboys meander to Ulan Bator in Mongolia for some cultural exchange and an immersion into
Mongolian song.
The piece is Narrated by Hal Cannon, and transports you for a brief moment from behind your
desk into another space where the binding qualities of music and the carefree life of a cowboy are rendered wonderfully
in a Mongolian version of John Denver’s Country Road.