Buckaroo Roundup

Cowboy Bob was the family-friendly western alter ego of Mark Behrend, a Saskatoon singer, songwriter, humourist, and television producer whose work mixed children’s entertainment with prairie cowboy mythology. Built around tall tales, campfire songs, barnyard humour, and an exaggerated old-west personality, Cowboy Bob presented Canadian kids’ music with a distinctly Saskatchewan flavour — part country singalong, part comic-book cowboy, and part homemade prairie theatre.

Behrend had already built a creative life around music, comedy, and television before releasing Cowboy Bob’s Buckaroo Roundup in 2001. His background included writing songs for CBC Radio and Television, producing educational television, and creating humorous stories about cowboy life. He was also recognized in Saskatchewan media circles, winning a 1994 Saskatchewan Motion Picture Industry Association Award for the children’s television program Down on the Farm, as well as a 1992 Sam Ross Award for Best Editorial in a Music Video Format.

Released by MCB Productions Ltd., Buckaroo Roundup captured Cowboy Bob’s colourful world in full. The album featured songs such as “Cattle Drive,” “Crunchy Chicken,” “Giddy Up Pony,” “Yodelin’ Song,” “Sami the Snake,” “Annie Was a Cowgirl,” “Comfy Workin’ Boots,” and “Adios Buckaroos,” all wrapped in a bright cartoon-western package. The record was produced by Ross Nykiforuk with Mark Behrend, and recorded and engineered by R. Nykiforuk at Cosmic Pad Studios in Saskatoon.

The supporting cast, billed as The Rodeokings, added to the playful make-believe of the project. Alongside Cowboy Bob on vocals and acoustic guitar were characters including Buttercup, Curly Monroe, Cosmic Cowboy, 88 Fingers Louie, Slim Reed, Slappin’ Butch Murphy, and Billy Bob Beader, with instrumentation ranging from acoustic and electric guitars to piano, organ, cowboy accordion, saxophone, washtub bass, and skiffle drums.

The album’s community spirit was also part of its charm. Its credits thank the children, parents, and families of St. Martin’s United Church in Saskatoon for helping with the “Yodelin’ Song,” and note support from the Saskatchewan Arts Board. In 2002, Cowboy Bob’s Buckaroo Roundup received a Canadian Indie Award nomination, giving the project recognition beyond its local prairie roots.

Equal parts musician, storyteller, and children’s entertainer, Cowboy Bob stands as one of those wonderfully regional Canadian characters: funny, sincere, handmade, and deeply tied to place. Through Buckaroo Roundup, Mark Behrend created a little Saskatchewan western universe where kids, parents, horses, snakes, cowgirls, cowboys, and comic frontier legends could all ride along together.

-Robert Williston