The bright glow of a nearly full moon — the sturgeon moon, as it is called — was coming up over the Rockport Dam as we wandered in the darkness through an open field. Off in the distance, warm light spilled from the windows of an old church as finger-pickin’ melodies drifted across the night air.

We followed the sound to a small campfire where a circle of musicians debated their next tune. There were a couple of guitars, a banjo, a stand-up bass, and a woman on a chest-mounted washboard — a classic bluegrass ensemble.

Then they began: slow, melodic, and heartfelt. “I love the cowboy life, I do, don’t try to take it from me,” they sang in perfect campfire harmony. The guitars steered the song, the banjo added its twang, and the bass thumped steadily in time with the flicker of the fire.

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