"Don't Mess With a Cowboy" Poseur Country Band Gets Humiliated on Tour

Canadian pop-rock band Baby Jey decided to mix things up on their most recent album Someday Cowboy by venturing into the world of country music. The new record features banjo, dobro, pedal steel guitar and just about every instrument that makes you think cowboy. The only thing is: these guy aren’t cowboys. This never seemed to bother anyone until recently, when the band toured through Oakdale, California.

Commonly known as “the Cowboy Capital of the World,” Oakdale was a stop on Baby Jey’s tour between San Francisco and Las Vegas. But Oakdale is the largest concentration of rough, tough, take-no-sh*t cowboys worldwide. And to say the least, these guys were not amused with the band’s fake cowboy getup. “Country ain’t something you can just put on and take off, like a wig,” Coalten Delaney explained. “And these fellas from Canada think it’s some kinda joke. We can see right through it.” Baby Jey’s album Someday Cowboy has a forward-looking title, possibly suggesting something post-cowboy. The title came from a shortening of the album’s fourth track, called “Someday My Space Cowboy Will Come.” It’s undeniably a catchy tune, but locals in Oakdale definitely weren’t dancing to Baby Jey’s jig. They weren’t even tapping a foot.

“We saw this same thing happening with Glen Campbell and all the rhinestone cowboys of the ‘70s. That whole fake cowboy thing was a phenomenon unto itself. A rhinestone cowboy by definition IS a fake cowboy with sparkly clothes and rhinestone jewelry. And let me just say, a rhinestone, by definition, IS a fake diamond. And we won’t stand for this kind of mockery in Oakdale,” said Delaney. “We gave them a chance to prove themselves,” Delaney continued. “I told those guys we’d let them keep their cowboy hats on if they could throw a lasso, ride a horse or milk a cow. But no surprise to me, not a single member of that joke squad of a band could do any of those things.”

“So I said to the band ‘you guys think you’re ‘new school country?’ Allow me to show you Old School Country,’ and we locked all four of ‘em up in the wooden pillories on main street. You wanna make fun of cowboys from the past? I’ll show you something from the past.”

The members of the band were released after a hot afternoon locked up in the sun. Their cowboy hats were confiscated and it doesn’t look like Baby Jey will be going back to Oakdale anytime soon.