PrintCowboy: The Ultimate Guide to Living Like a Great American Icon
Rocco Wachman, host of CMT’s Cowboy U, breaks down the cowboy lifestyle
WEB EXCLUSIVE
The word “cowboy” is so ubiquitous that few people pause to really think about what it means. Is it John Wayne in the movies or an unknown ranch hand in New Mexico? Does it refer only to the men who drove the cattle across the Plains more than a century ago, or is it the guy who shows up at his office job wearing snakeskin boots and a silver belt buckle?
To help us get over our confusion, Rocco Wachman and Matt Pellegrini have written Cowboy: The Ultimate Guide to Living Like a Great American Icon. Here at last is a primer to the history and heritage of the cowboy, and what it means to claim that status in the 21st century.
Wachman, host of CMT’s Cowboy U, breaks down the cowboy lifestyle from the requirements of the job to the necessary uniform and gear to what to do when the workday is through. Each chapter is interspersed with “Rocco says” sidebars that offer historical nuggets, product recommendations, and words to live by (Sample: “Real cowboys don’t line dance.”).
Cowboy is a sincere and sometimes humorous mix of instructions, profiles, photographs, trivia, and even a few recipes to help readers live the cowboy life no matter where they call home. We’d have liked it even if Wachman hadn’t mentioned Cowboys & Indians in his Resource and Reference Guide chapter.
