Cowboy Nation

Description and reception

Cowboy Nation was devoted to cowboy songs and other material portraying the Old West. Tony Kinman described the music as an extremely distilled version of Rank and File, minimalist in approach, with one guitar, one bass, and two-thirds of a drum kit, plus the brothers singing. Their harmonies featured Tony's baritone and Chip's tenor. Music writer Chris Morris noted the Kinmans' career path from the politico-punk unit The Dils to the pioneering cowpunk band Rank and File, then to the harsher, industrial sound of Blackbird, and finally to Cowboy Nation.

Chip Kinman stated that if a song could not be played around a campfire, it was not on the record. Tony Kinman's 2018 obituary in the Los Angeles Times highlighted how the brothers frequently shifted gears and moved counter to prevailing musical currents, quoting a prior report that said, "Once again, the Kinmans leave us, delightedly, unable to categorize them." Country Standard Time, reviewing the second album A Journey Out of Time, called it a heartfelt homage to the cowboy with unpretentious lyrics and a provocatively dark sound.

The Chicago Tribune observed of the final album Cowgirl A-Go-Go that its 11 loping, authentic tracks viewed the present-day world through a bygone-days prism. Cowboy Nation performed at the inaugural Stagecoach Festival in 2007, described at that time as coming out of semi-retirement. The band was Tony Kinman's final group; Chip Kinman continued with Chip Kinman and PCH in 2007 and later Ford Madox Ford in 2016.