Buffalo Bill's Wild West Cowboy Band

Wild West show acts such as Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull were set to music by the 27-piece Buffalo Bill's Wild West Cowboy Band.

The Cowboy Band was considered a very tight and disciplined group led by William Sweeney. They were a band with incredible stamina and appeal, even in Europe where military bands were all the rage in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Cowboy Band was an indispensable element of Buffalo Bill's Wild West. The band expressed the necessary aural moods that enhanced the performances and thrilled audiences. Their music accompanied the show, filled in dead spots between acts, and heightened audience response by charging the atmosphere of the show with their numbers.

Each musician wore a wide-brimmed hat, chaps, Western boots, a long sleeved shirt and studded gun holster…though few if any of the players had ever punched cattle, much less shot a bad guy. This uniform was unusual for an era in which bands normally attired themselves in military-style uniforms.

The music they performed was reflective of the times — ordered marches, ragtime-influenced pieces, light overtures and popular songs. They smoothed the often rough and rugged edges of folk, ragtime, Indian and other music to make them culturally acceptable and thrilling to the millions of their audience in America and Europe.