The Sweet ‘Cowboy Lullaby’

In a quirky coincidence, Rubicon Theatre is also opening a musical mashup this week, one that also takes place in a single setting. A Cowboy Lullaby, the latest original piece by the Ventura company veterans James O’Neil and Dan Wheetman, grew out of a jam session on closing night of a show based on the Kingston Trio.

“The whole cast was there, the guitars came out, and as we sat around singing and playing at one point it got into cowboy music,” Wheetman recalled. “Everybody knew at least a couple of them, and after a while, the idea came up of doing a show.” 

Cowboy Lullaby is set at a present-day campfire, where the performers reflect on ideas of freedom, adventure and community. The characters trace the music back through time as far as California’s vaquero culture – which predates the famed late 1860s cattle drives by 200 years – up through modern times, Wheetman said. 

“The culture is about having an independent soul, the way the American persona is perceived around the world,” he said. “Cowboys are held up as an icon or hero everywhere.”

The song list ranges from campfire tunes to cowboy anthems and country ballads, covering such standards as “Home on the Range” and “Tumblin’ Tumbleweeds,” songs by Gene Autry, Patsy Cline, Marty Robbins, and Riders of the Purple Sage, right up to Ian Tyson and Gordon Lightfoot compositions and even “Rocky Raccoon” by The Beatles. 

To provide a narrative thread, O’Neil wrote a long piece of cowboy poetry that weaves between the musical offerings, tracing the evolution of an aging cowboy. 

“He moves from the committed loner to realizing that his life has to change, and recognizing the value of connection and community,” O’Neil said. 

Lonesome Traveler, an earlier O’Neil-Wheetman collaboration that premiered at RTC and explored the roots of American folk music, received critical acclaim and won Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations off-Broadway. Time will tell whether Cowboy Lullaby – which plays December 4-22 – enjoys a similarly long life or rides off into the sunset like the Marlboro Man.