Cowboy Troy
Black In The Saddle
When you’re six feet, five inches tall you stand out. Add a cowboy hat and you stand
out even more. Then make the subject an outspoken African-American from Texas,
and there’s no question that Cowboy Troy (AKA Troy Coleman) isn’t exactly an
average guy. Yet while Troy may revel in being instantly identifiable from the rank
and file in many ways, he also feels that his music shouldn’t be deemed something
outrageous, gimmicky, or bizarre. “I grew up listening to a mix of country music, rap
and rock, with a little bit of funk and pop,” Coleman says. “That didn’t make me
unusual back home (Victoria, Texas). Whenever I would go into the honky-tonks and
they put on Run-DMC or Sir Mix-A-Lot, the floor would be packed with the cowboy
hats swaying and people having a good time dancing. So it didn’t seem like that big a
deal for me once I decided to try music that all these things would converge in my
music.”
Mix in like-minded co-producer John Rich (AKA J. MONEY) and this convergence
really starts to make sense. “John was one of the first people in the business that
understood how natural what I was doing really was and that it wasn’t an act, just a
natural extension of myself and my musical influences,” Troy remembers.
Yet it’s precisely that different blend, a convergence of country, rap and rock that
Troy dubbed “hick-hop,” that’s still causing quite a stir throughout the country music
world. Two years ago, when Cowboy Troy’s Warner Bros./Raybaw debut, Loco
Motive, debuted at number two on the Billboard Country Albums chart, the industry
could not deny that something unique was going on. Despite minimal (to put it mildly)
country radio support (the lead single, “I Play Chicken With The Train,” peaked at
number 48 on the charts), the song managed to become the number one country
download at the iTunes music store. The little Loco Motive that could has since gone
on to sell some 342,000 copies.
And the world took note. Troy was everywhere—from th