For those who are fans of world music, cowboy songs and just plain well-told stories, this really cool little piece coming from the NPR archives is a real listening pleasure. The story examines a group of Mongolian herdsmen who traveled all the way to Elko, NV, to hang out with some bona-fide American cowboys (albeit singing cowboys) and the two form a kind of bonding experience about music and life on the range. And then as you'll hear in this story, the cowboys meander to Ulan Bator in Mongolia for some cultural exchange and an immersion into Mongolian song.

The piece is Narrated by Hal Cannon, and transports you for a brief moment from behind your desk into another space where the binding qualities of music and the carefree life of a cowboy are rendered wonderfully in a Mongolian version of John Denver's Country Road.

Filed under: Arts and Culture, History, Learning, Asia, North America, Mongolia, United States