Custom Leather Footwear, Saddles, and Accessories
I run this little business
And it’s where I hand-make boots
I get called the Cowboy Cobbler
Someone thought that that was cute.
Sometimes folks get asking questions
Which are mostly all the same
So I’ve practiced up some answers.
But there is one drives me insane.
“Are you the Cowboy Cobbler?”
It is often asked of me
Well, I guess to answer proper
I’d say yes, but then you see
I don’t think that I’m a cowboy.
Only once I branded steer.
I don’t ride bulls, nor rope their babies.
Riding horses hurts my rear.
If I tried to be a cowboy
I’d look just like a dolt
But I grew up in the country
And I’ve been bucked off my own colt.
Perhaps we can’t define a cowboy
Long gones the trail drive crew
There’s western dressers-there’s some B.S.’ers
And B.S. ain’t worse than what they chew.
Maybe Grandpa was a cowboy
And there still remains some folk
Who are ranchers, or rodeo riders
They keep the term from total croak.
But what to do with this term ‘cobbler?
Ain’t that those who fix footwear?
I make them, and renovate them
Yet I’m termed as shoe repair.
What I am has near lost meaning
Why just the other day
I searched for the word ‘cobbler’
Just to see what it would say.
And after definition number one
Said to work with footwear stuff
There was definition number two
Which made me feel a little gruff.
‘Shotty workman, to patch up coarsely
Mending on the boot or shoe.”
Webster gives that definition
Tell me, what am I to do?
I think of times I worked so careful
Just a sweaten’ every stitch
Or drafting pattern to custom measure
And being proud this is my nitch.
Or on the phone with happy customer
And he likes the way they wear
And he tell me I’m an artist
And he wants another pair.
Nope, modern cowboy stole the meaning
Of an old historic word
And there’s so many kinds of ‘cobbler’
To claim that title seems absurd.
So in answer to your question
I just work here in this shop
Making boots and shoes and saddles
Yet that title just won’t stop.
In New York I’d be a cowboy
Because I run that kind of biz.
But to a Cowboy I’d be a cobbler
Or whatever the hell it is.