The Tango Cowboys perform fun-loving music from America (North and South), specializing in vocal tangos and cowboy songs from the 1930s and 1940s, trail songs from the great cattle drives of the 1870s, and classics by Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins. They tell stories of their songs directly to the audience, inviting them to journey from the open range of the wild west and the small cafe in Buenos Aires. They have performed at prestigious festivals in the Northwest such as Bach Fest, Northwest Folklife, and Subdued Stringband Jamboree, and in intimate cafes, tasting rooms, and restaurants.
Tom Bourne-guitar (former member)
Guitarist Tom Bourne began in the 1960s playing surf guitar in the Arizona desert. His six-string journey has led him through rock, country, folk, classical, and jazz, working as a college guitar and music teacher, as a performing soloist, in various bands, and in the pit for many musicals. In forming Tango Cowboys with singer Rich Hinrichsen, Tom was taken by the harmonies of Rich’s piano arrangements of Carlos Gardel’s tango songs, which evoked memories of his immersion as a young classical guitarist in the sounds of Argentina. Adapting Rich's piano accompaniments to guitar, Tom creates a backdrop that is elegant and earthy. In their cowboy and folk songs, Tom draws from jazz, country fingerpicking and
Rich Hinrichsen-voice, guitar, and keyboard
Rich is a singer and multi-instrumentalist who tells stories in the tradition of singers of cowboy songs and tangos. His rich, baritone voice reaches into your heart with new interpretations and honest deliveries of classic songs. Rich is the author of Sing The Cowboy Way and Sing Along Cowboy! with a foreword by Rob Quist. Sing Along Cowboy! is a compilation of 56 classic cowboy songs and one of Rich's own songs, "Truckee." Rich was inspired to take up music by his Father Bill who sang songs from musicals and played guitar, performing songs like "Try To Remember." As a youngster, Rich watched serial westerns starring John Wayne, sang, played violin, double bass, and piano, and performed in churches and schools a small community in SW Washington State.
Celtic music, bringing expansive harmonies and dreamy rhythms to the Tango Cowboy soundscape.
Over the years Rich developed a love for tango, which began when he saw Al Pacino play a blind man who danced tango in "Scent of a Woman." He discovered that the tango in the movie was written by the great Carlos Gardel, and after hearing Gardel sing, was sold on learning those beautiful songs. Rich travelled to Buenos Aires to visit the last resting place of Carlos Gardel and to learn from singer Micaela Vita to bring tango to life and discover his own singing style.