Cowboy pays a visit

It was the streets of Stratford, not Laredo, for one cowboy last week, and he was most certainly alive when he left, unlike the unfortunate 'poor cowboy' of the song.

The Singing Cowboy was back in town last week, attracting an appreciative audience who stopped to hear him busk outside the ANZ bank on Broadway.

"He's got a good voice and I like the songs he's singing." Joan Thomas says she enjoyed standing and listening to Jock Hume, The Singing Cowboy on Thursday, while she waited for her sister to meet her for lunch.

"This is much better than a lot of the music you hear nowadays, this has real meaning behind the words."

Jock has been busking "since it became legal" in the 1980s, and while he is technically retiring from it, "I can't see myself stopping singing completely".

Jock's love of all things country and western started when he was a young boy. "My mum threw me a cowboy themed fifth birthday party, and I remember listening to the songs on the radio. I loved Gene Autry and Roy Rogers and would listen to them all I could."

The first cowboy song he learned to play was The Streets Of Laredo, the first cowboy song to have been written down on paper, says Jock.

From Stratford, Jock was heading on down to Hawera, where he was booked to play in a couple of retirement homes. "I love what I do, travelling around, playing music and meeting people. What's not to like about that?"

See a video clip of Jock busking in Stratford on our Facebook page.