"Cowboy’s Dream" is an American reel in cut time and D Major. The parts are played AB (Silberberg), AABB (Kuntz) or AABB' (Phillips). John McCutcheon identifies "Cowboy's Dream" as an Ohio tune, although its origins are somewhat obscure. Kerry Blech says the tune was played by Barnesville, Ohio, fiddler John W. Hutchison (1915-1979), from whom it was learned by fiddler Greg Dearth who was playing with Hutchison's sons in a bluegrass band for a time. Hutchison says he learned many of his tunes from "'old man' Bondy, an Irishman" although whether this reel was one is not known. Dearth later played with the Hot Mud Family, who Blech thinks "were probably the main conduit for this tune getting spread around." This is not the same tune as the "Cowboy's Dream" song printed in John and Alan Lomax's Folk Song USA. Source for the notated version is fiddler Bill Christopherson and Scott Ainslie with the Fly By Night String Band. The banjo tablature is by John Letscher. It was printed in Clare Milliner & Walt Koken's Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes (2011), Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994), Lamancusa's The Gettysburg Collection of Old-Time Fiddle Tunes (2021) and Silberberg's Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern (2002). It was recorded by John McCutcheon on Fine Times at Our House (1982), Mac Benford with Eric Thompson and Sandy Bradley on Backwoods Banjo - Old Time Love Songs And Dance Tunes (1979), The Fat City String Band (Walt Koken, Mac Benford, Bob Potts) on The Original Fat City String Band (1990) and The Fly By Night String Band on The Fly By Night String Band (1980).