The Karaoke Night the Herd Joined
A barn karaoke night near Stephenville gets an unexpected backup chorus when the whole herd follows the speakers across the pasture.
Last fall the young dairy folks asked if they could hold a karaoke night in my hay barn, and I said yes on one condition, which was that I got to sing last. They hung up lights and borrowed a machine from the VFW and hauled in forty bales for seating. By dark, the barn was packed with people in boots holding paper cups.
The singing started slow. A fellow from the feed store did a very moving ballad about a truck. A woman named Teodora, who runs the creamery stand, performed a duet with her husband that brought tears to a few eyes and a cough to several others. Outside the barn, I noticed the herd had begun to gather along the fence, one cow at a time, and they were listening.
I should say that cows love music. It is a well known thing in dairy circles. What I did not know was that mine had opinions about it. When the fourth singer, a nervous young man in a pressed shirt, started a slow country number, the whole herd gave a low and perfectly timed 'mooooo' on the long note. It was like a choir. The young man stopped. The crowd went silent. Then somebody started clapping.
After that, the cows became a feature. We opened the big door, and the herd stood in the yard as the backup section. Every time a singer reached for a high note, there was a harmony from the dark. By nine o'clock, we had people lining up to sing so they could have the cows with them. They called the herd 'The Holsteinettes,' which I think was a young woman's idea.
When my turn came, I sang something about a river, and the herd stayed quiet the whole way through, which I took as respect or relief. The night raised nine hundred dollars for the youth scholarship. If you want to hear more songs and stories from this part of Texas, there are plenty at farm.FM.
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