"Ambassadors from Abilene"
Editor's note: in February 1989, the Hardin-Simmons University Cowboy Band put another notch in the barrel of being "world famous" with a trip to Nice, France. Reporter-News Editor Glenn Dromgoole saddled up for the adventure.
NICE, France - I had to travel more than 11,000 miles to discover what a great resource we have right in our own backyard.
The Hardin-Simmons University Cowboy Band - make that World Famous Cowboy Band - really wowed 'em in France.
The guys in the all-male band are accomplished musicians, to be sure, some of them playing three of four instruments in the course of a concert. But they are more than that. The are entertainers.
One night last week during the Nice Carnaval festivities, the Cowboy Band was the featured concert attraction. Playing to a packed tent, the Cowboys put on a show that the French are not likely to forget anytime soon. Nor will I.
The band obviously enjoyed itself whooping and hollering and laughing and waving their cowboy hats between songs. That helped the audience get into the performances. At first, it seemed the Cowboys were making more noise applauding the spectators than the spectators were applauding the band. But pretty soon, the crowd was cheering wildly, obviously taken with these strange and wonderful visitors from the U.S.
The Cowboy Band, one of only two U.S. groups at the Carnaval, offered an outstanding variety and quality of music to go with all the hoopla. With director Scott Mather announcing the program selections in French, the band went through an assorts of cowboy tunes, jazz numbers, rock hits and religious songs. Then, as they did throughout the week at other appearances, the band members put down their instruments and sang several numbers, including a version of "Amazing Grace" in French.
I speak no French, but I did make out the word "versatile" in a conversation between two teenage French girls seated behind us, Versatile, indeed.
As I watched the performance, it occurred to me that most Abilenians probably have never taken the opportunity to hear a Cowboy Band performance. Oh, we see them in the West Texas Fair Parade, or at the rodeo maybe, or at a basketball game. Not when it's really their show. Their annual barbecue concert last fall was attended by few folks outside the HSU community.
If the Cowboy Band was from Somewhere Else, we'd be paying good money to bring the group here to perform at the Paramount. But since they're the hometown boys, we tend to overlook them.
So they go to France and, as they did the last time they were in Nice in 1986, they won the hearts of the crowd. The band marched in at least six parades and played several small concerts, in addition to the main concert in the big tent. Twice, they were featured on television. They were honored at a reception sponsored by the mayor of Nice.
Everywhere they went, they not only represented their university well, they also were ambassadors for Abilene. The Nice newspaper referred to them as les Cow-boys d'Abilene du Texas - the Cowboys from Abilene, Texas.
Take it from a new fan, those Cowboys did us proud.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: "Ambassadors from Abilene"
