Cowboys in Cyberspace

A decade of Cowboys In Cyberspace on the web and in Capital News… 

Some of you younger readers may not remember a world without the Internet, let alone without computers! Before we look back over the last ten years, let’s go a little further back for some personal perspective. In the mid-seventies I worked with computers in the Rural Bank and they were so big they occupied their own floor of the building. No personal computers back then, so I wrote on a manual typewriter and praised the day that Liquid Paper came on the market.  

In the mid-eighties I wrote commentaries on country music for CAPITAL NEWS from the USA and the UK. By then I had a DRAGON 32 personal computer with 32KB of memory – less that you find now in the average stuffed toy – and it stored and loaded data to and from a standard audio cassette in real time. In England I would type the articles, store them on a cassette and then catch a train to the next town. There I knew a shop that had the same brand computer hooked up to a dot-matrix printer. They would print my work for 5p a page and I’d then put the pages in an envelope with an airmail stamp and post them to Tamworth.

Fast-forward to September 1997 when we began to explore the World Wide Web together and look for that all-important country music! Right from the start in the first column we warned you that surfing was addictive and time consuming (bet you wished you’d listened now, ha!) and we gave a surprising example of ‘six degrees of separation’ that took us from Emmylou Harris, via Albert Lee, Music Man guitars, Ernie Ball strings and Steve Morse to end up far away at the Deep Purple website! Guitar legend ALBERT LEE made a return visit to Australia last month for a series of blistering shows. He was accompanied by the wonderful local band Wheelers & Dealers, fronted by the multi-talented Chris Wheeler with Ged Corben on guitar and our old friends Mike Kerin on fiddle, Michael Vidale on slap bass and Malcolm Wakeford guesting on drums. 

ALBERT LEE features strongly in the September 2007 Cowboys In Cyberspace on-line video podcast extra this month as does local fretmaster MICHAEL FIX who launched his new retrospective album Rewind and the songbook Noted! in Sydney at The Basement. The book contains transcriptions of ten of his wonderfully distinctive acoustic guitar tunes. Michael was mentioned in our second column, way back when we still wondered if there would be enough country music to be found on the web each month! Pictured right: Michael Fix at The Basement, Sydney August 2007.  

Over the last ten years it has been a wonderful journey exploring the explosion of the web not only for you, good readers of Capital News, but also for thousands of on-line readers around the globe. Along the way, Nashville acknowledged us with the prestigious Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism and this month, I am truly honoured to be a finalist for the Rex Barry Award at the 2007 CMAA Australian Country Music Achiever Awards. 

Pictured above: Bob Howe presents Australian country music to the International Country Music Conference in Nashville, 2004. 

A couple of months ago we mentioned a great cable television show and website for those of you looking for computer tech help – THE LAB WITH LEO. Since then, Cowboys In Cyberspace has been featured in their Web Workshop segment, with design expert Susannah Gardner giving us not only valuable advice on improving the site for you, but also widespread exposure in Canada and Australia. Here’s hoping you like the new layout and improved features at our new easy-to-remember address www.cowboysincyberspace.com 

Until next time, happy surfing!

Bob talked to Barbara Morison on 2SER 107.3 FM about this month’s column and more…