I already have one such themed playlist. I can't be bothered to edit it for stuff you may not want, sorry. Here goes:

The Magnificent Seven/Elmer Bernstein
Rawhide/Frankie Laine
Western Movies/The Olympics
Ghost Riders In The Sky/Johnny Cash
Lonesome Cowboy/Elvis Presley
Big Iron/Marty Robbins
Farewell To Cheyenne/Ennio Morricone
Jesse James/Ry Cooder
Frank And Jesse James/Warren Zevon
Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun/Elton John
Gunfight At The O.K. Corral/Frankie Laine
Main Title Theme (Billy)/Bob Dylan
Don't Take Your Guns To Town/Johnny Cash
The Long Riders/Ry Cooder
Rider In The Rain/Randy Newman
Sergio Leone/Jackson Browne
Pancho & Lefty/Townes Van Zandt
The Hills Of Mexico/Johnny Cash
Man With A Harmonica/Ennio Morricone
Billy 1/Bob Dylan
A Horse With No Name/America
El Paso/Marty Robbins
Romance In Durango/Bob Dylan
Western Hero/Neil Young
Blazing Saddles/Frankie Laine
Buckaroo Bill/Dan Penn
Archie's Funeral/Ry Cooder

Cowboy Song

what about all the tunes with western samples in'em
e=mc2 by BAd has most of good the bad and the ugly, bounty liller by Bounty killer is the same.
the ryhme that bytes by MC tunes samples the them from the big country!
alos how don't come the cowboy with me soony jim by Kirtsy Macall
chris diford had song about cowboy(girls) are my weakness
go west by PSB!
sun to hils by ron maiden
kings of the wild frontier adam and the ants
desparado by the eagles
John wayne is big leggy....

Has a Cowboy trilogy!!

But a couple of songs "Alberta Bound", "Someday Soon" "Navajo Rug"

And by the way , there is nowt wrong with "Rhinestone Cowboy"

and Elegia by New order is based on the musical watch bit from a fistful of dollars, go on go for 17 mins version!

Frontier Psychiatrist by the Avalanches and (because I heard it on the radio earlier) Wild West Hero by the Electric Light Orchestra

Most of the stuff from the first four New Riders albums is cowboy related.

Cant help thinking there must be a few Neil Young tracks that would work.

I assume you want to avoid the Willie/Waylon outlaw country stuff. Could go on forever there....

Kirsty McColl - Don't come the cowboy with me sonny Jim.
Pavlov's Dog - Fast gun

Gunslinger man - The Long Ryders.
Cowboys are my weakness - Chris Difford
Bounty Hunter - The Men They Couldn't Hang
Jessie James - The Pogues

Game,set and match.

Jesse James Symphony/Bolero on 'Jordan: The Comeback', and all of 'The Gunman And Other Stories', including a lovely reading of The Streets Of Laredo.

On the fabulous website
http://reverendfrost.blogspot.com/
Check out his Bloody Western Mixes. Number 2 is brilliant ,the other 3 are very very good.
He's a really cool guy as well if you want to drop him a line.

"Robert Ford on the Stage" by Dave Graney and the White Buffalos.

Inspired by the man who shot Jessie James. According to the song Ford spent the rest of life going on stage telling the tale of how he killed the famous outlaw, re-living his greatest moment which was also his greatest regret.

Brilliant, highly unusual song.

Here are a few sharpshooters:

"Crystal Frontier Widescreen" by Calexico. [Amazing, cinematic song; not exactly about cowboys but has a great Western movie feel]

"Man with a Smoking Gun" by Gretchen Hofner.

"Medicine Show" by Big Audio Dynamite [This is the one with Western samples, rather than E=MC2, which is mostly from "Performance"]

"Western Special" by the Potato 5. [Ska instrumental with sound effects]

There are whole compilations of Western-inspired reggae. Clint Eastwood (like James Bond) has traditionally been a particular hero to reggae musicians:
http://tinyurl.com/4vvud3
http://tinyurl.com/4llqrd

"A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done"

Quick search in iTunes uncovered the following not already mentioned:

Theme From An Imaginary Western: Jack Bruce
Broken Down Cowboy: John Fogerty
Ain't That What The Cowgirls All Do: Martin Newell

Last one was download only from Martin's website a few years back. Lovely piano ballad.

Surely their whole current ethos is based around imagic cowpokery? Not least their (inter)related version as the Drifting Cowgirls.

Roy Rogers

Sometime muso, Cleaner of Venus and Indy resident poet? He's a mate of mine!

Dave Alvin: Sonora's Death Row (although he didn't write it, and I think the song's author is pretty obscure).
Chris Knight; The border; House and 90 acres; Carla came home; Down the river; Love and a .45
Neil Young: Cowgirl in the sand; Pocahontas; Powderfinger; Slowpoke (strictly CSNY); Southern Pacific; El Dorado
Stephen Stills: Colorado; Cherokee; Change partners
Bob Seger: Roll me away
Natalie Merchant: San Andreas fault
Green On Red: The drifter; Mighty gun; Clarksville
Emmylou Harris: Boulder to Birmingham; I'll be your San Antone rose; Waltz across Texas
Steve Earle: The rain came down; Copperhead Road; Billy Austin; Someday; Telephone Road; Ben McCulloch; Tom Ames' prayer; Harlan man; The mountain;
Rodney Crowell: Telephone Road (completely different song from Steve Earle)
Guy Clark: L.A. Freeway; Desperados waiting for a train; Texas cookin'; The Houston Kid; Lone Star hotel; Texas 1947; The last gunfighter ballad
Dixie Chicks: Cowboy take me away
Poco: Rose of Cimarron
Tom Petty: Two gunslingers

Big Hat , No Cattle - Randy Newman
Poncho and Lefty - but Emmylou Harris not Townes, she´s prettier and sings it better.
Desperadoe - Ther langley Schools project version and not the Eagles.
Rider on the Range - Randy Newman again with the Eagles on backing vocals ?
Trail of the Lonesome Pine - Laurel and Hardy

Lyle Lovett's records are peppered with cowboy songs, but try Cowboy Man from Lyle Lovett and Which Way Does That Old Pony Run? from LL and his Large Band.

The Be Good Tanyas: Lakes of Ponchartrain, Oh Susannah

ELP: The Sheriff, Hoedown (both on their best record, Trilogy)

B Dylan: Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts, Spanish is the Loving Tongue

And don't forget the classics. Aaron Copland: Billy the Kid, Rodeo et al. Without Aaron, where would Randy Newman's orchestral work be?

Robert Earl Keen is peppered with Cowboy references. Check out his early and best LP, "West Textures". Loadsa no hat country (no western) cowboy songs. Also "Bigger Piece of the Sky". He went a bit downhill after that, as the college comedy song circuit proved more financially rewarding than his maudlin baritone weepies.
Best version of Blackie Farrell's "Sonora Death Row" is on "West Textures".

Fields of the Nephilim immediately sprung to my mind when I clapped eyes on this topic

as you were ...

Just heard this song and thought of this thread. Don't know if it pre-dates Brokeback Mountain

Cowboy Love

I wanna go two steppin',
With a good lookin' big black buck,
I want him to come and pick me up in his chevrolet pick-up truck,
And when we're on the dance floor his hat will rise high above,
It's inter-racial cowboy homo kind of love.

Tall of course dark and handsome,
A gentlemen in every way,
A true cow poke in every sense of the word,
We really go to work in the hay.
A bronc bustin' bull ridin' tiger,
Yet peaceful as a dove,
It's inter-racial cowboy homo kind of love,
I know that us as a couple,
Will cause talk but I wouldn't mind,
Those cowboys will be pea green with envy,
When they see his cute behind.
That's why each night by the campfire,
I thank my lucky stars above,
For inter-racial cowboy homo kind of love.
Yeah I know that us as a couple,
Will cause talk but I wouldn't mind,
Those cowboys will be pea green with envy,
When they see his cute behind.
That's why each night by the campfire,
I thank my lucky stars above,
For inter-racial cowboy homo kind of love.
Kind of love,
Kind of love