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Rick Huff reviews Western music and cowboy poetry releases in his "Rick Huff's Best of the West Reviews" column in Rope Burns,The Western Way from the Western Music Association, the Backforty Bunkhouse Newsletter, CowboyLegacy.org, and at CowboyPoetry.com, We're pleased to have selected reviews below.

Rick Huff considers Western music books and recordings; cowboy poetry books, chapbooks, and recordings; and relevant videos for review. For other materials, please query first: bestofthewest@swcp.com

Please be sure to include complete contact information, price (plus postage) and order address information.

Rick Huff
P.O. Box 8442
Albuquerque, NM 87198-8442

Rick Huff has produced radio and TV ads and done TV hosting and deejay work for nearly 37 years. He's had his own production company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, since 1978.
His working interest in Western Music began in 1983, promoting and creating with Western Music Hall-of-Famer Hi Busse. In 1986 they developed the radio featurette "Song and Story with Hi Busse" and Huff subsequently released two albums of Hi Busse & The Frontiersmen material. He has co-produced CD's for Sons of the Rio Grande and Jim Jones.
In 1999 he and Sidekick Productions' Mary Ryland formed Frontiersmen 2 to co-produce their radio show "The Best of the West Revue" and its publication "The Best of the West Digest." In 2004 they released a double CD set, The Best of New Mexico Western: Big Surprises From Behind the Chile Curtain! and are currently working on Volume II - or as they like to call it Son of the Best of New Mexico Western!

Huff's "Western Air" column appears regularly in the Western Music Association's magazine, The Western Way. He also writes for Classic Country & Western magazine and Rope Burns. The column is a regular feature of the Western Music Association's quarterly magazine, The Western Way, and we're pleased to have recent columns posted here.

Selected Reviews from Rick Huff's Best of the West Reviews

See page one for a complete alphabetical list of all reviews

Reviews on this Page

Alphabetically by artist, below

This is page four

A
Counting the Cost by Liz Adair
Cowboy II by Lynn Anderson

B
Just In Case by Bill Barwick
Red Rock Rondo by Phillip Bimstein
Horsegirl Poet by Aspen Black
Work in Progress the Broken Chair Band

C
Riding Catalina Again by the California Cowboy Band
Life Love Legends by Carin Mari and the Pony Express
Songs A Cowboy Might Sing by Charlie Camden
At First Light by Tom Cole & Brian Salmond
Cowboy Songs by Mark Compere
Cowboys Are Like That by Ken Cook
Other Peoples' Cattle by Cowboy Celtic
Stuff That Works by Criddles & McCords
The Gypsy Cowman—A Vanishing Breed produced by Linda Lou Crosby

D
Beneath a Western Sky by Doris Daley
Western Bling by Stephanie Davis
Western Swing by Stephanie Davis
A Tougher Horse by Geff Dawson
Bittersweet Cowboy Reflections by Benjamin Dehart
Poems of the Trail by Steve Deming
Songs Along the Trail by The Desert Sons
Lucky Seven by The Desperadoes
The Old & The New by the Diamond W Wranglers

F
Songs of the Untamed West by Frank Fara
One Life to Live by Linda Lee Filener
Ride Away by Rich Flanders
Ridin' For The Brand by the Flying W Wranglers

G
New & Used by Gadzukes!
Ridin' In by Janice Gilbertson
Oklahoma 1955 by Les Gilliam
The Night Ol' Flukie Foundered by DW Groethe

H
A Century Too Late by Greg Hager
Daydream by Greg Hager
Campfire Cowboy—Back To The Fire by Fred Hargrove
My Sacred Ground by Fred Hargrove
Cross Halo by Paul Harris
A Good Ride by Bill Hearne
Welcome To The Tribe by Andy Wilkinson and Andy Hedges
Wind in the Wire by Ed Stabler with Kelly Henson
Lullabies & Cautionary Tales by E. Christina Herr & Wild Frontier
Shalako by Joe Herrington
Appaloosa Moon by Tom Hiatt
Ranch Life 101 by Sweethearts in Carhartts (Jean Prescott, Yvonne Hollenbeck, and Liz Masterson)
Daughters Of The West by Horse Crazy

J
Back Home on the Range by Jim Jones
When A Poor Man Dreams by Jim Jones
Desert Moon by Charles Woller and Deborah Liv Johnson

K
Clean Outta Luck by Mary Kaye
Different Kind Of Cowboy by Bobby Kingston

L
Cowboy State of Mind by Jennifer Lind
The Faraway Look by Daron Little
Don't Ever Sell Your Saddle by Skeeter Mann & The Lost Canyon Rangers
Dancing Shadows, Mustangs & Dreams by Sam Mattise and Michael Luque

Mc
Stuff That Works by Criddles & McCords
Rhythms of a Westerner by Jasper McCoy
Goin' My Way? by Gary McMahan
The Poetry of Larry McWhorter by Larry McWhorter and various artists

M
Pickin' Memories With Peggy Malone by Peggy Malone
Don't Ever Sell Your Saddle by Skeeter Mann & The Lost Canyon Rangers
Bringing Water to the Land by Richard Martin
Frontier Cowboy Songs—Volume 1 by Syd Masters
Ranch Life 101 by Sweethearts in Carhartts (Jean Prescott, Yvonne Hollenbeck, and Liz Masterson)
Dancing Shadows, Mustangs & Dreams by Sam Mattise and Michael Luque
The Ballad Of Kitty Jo by the Mountain Saddle Band
Buckaroo Blue Grass by Michael Martin Murphey
Lone Cowboy by Michael Martin Murphey

N
Scofield's Cowboy Campfire produced by Nashville West Studios
He Rides the Wild Horses by J.C. Needham
Living the Dream by Neeta
Riding with Jim by Andy Nelson
Round Up Ready by Barbara Nelson
Westerners by Nevada Slim and Cimarron Sue

O
Ridin' Back To Yesterday by The Old West Trio
Sky Settles Everything; the Wayne James Story by Verlena Orr

P
The Trail to Miranda Park by Dale Page
Southwestern Serenade by Patty Parker
Music Beneath The Mesa by Jonathan Lee Pickens & Friends
The State Songs: Volume One by Rick Pickren
The State Songs Volume Two by Rick Pickren
The Prairie Rose Rangers by The Prairie Rose Rangers
Life Love Legends by Carin Mari and the Pony Express
Ranch Life 101 by Sweethearts in Carhartts (Jean Prescott, Yvonne Hollenbeck, and Liz Masterson)

R
I Wanted to Fly by Sandy Reay & Friends
Top Seller!!! by Pat Richardson
Houston by River Road Boys
Word Wranglin' by Gary Robertson

S
Herdin' Cats by The Saddle Cats
At First Light by Tom Cole & Brian Salmond
What's a Steer by Cade Schalla
Songs for the Cowboys by Richard Sharp
Echoes of the West by Del Shields
True Love by Rebecca Linda Smith
Sons Of The Pioneers & Guests 75th Anniversary Show Volume I by the Sons of the Pioneers and various artists
The Westerner by the Sons of the Rio Grande
Classics II by Sourdough Slim
Old Cowboys Never Die by Steven Spalding
Wind in the Wire by Ed Stabler with Kelly Henson
Come Ride with Me by Dave Stamey
Ridin' Back to You by The Stardust Cowboys
Ranch Life 101 by Sweethearts in Carhartts (Jean Prescott, Yvonne Hollenbeck, and Liz Masterson)

T
More Than Satisfied by Liz Talley
Something In The Air by Nancy Thorwardson
Tuxedo Country by the Tom Houston Orchestra

W
Welcome To The Tribe by Andy Wilkinson and Andy Hedges
Desert Moon by Charles Woller and Deborah Liv Johnson
Cora's Cowgirl Yodel by Cora Rose Wood
Unwired by Wylie & the Wild West

Y
The Christmas Trail by the Yampa Valley Boys

Various Artists
The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Four from CowboyPoetry.com
The Silver Screen Cowboy Project by Various Artists

Many more reviews on page 2 and page 3

See page one for a complete alphabetical list of all reviews

The Poetry of Larry McWhorter
Larry McWhorter and various artists

What an amazing labor of love this must have been for everybody concerned! Here is a 2-CD visit with one of the all time great cowboy poets, and I guarantee you it's a visit you'll revisit, and revisit, and revisit!

McWhorter passed away in 2003, far too young, after a grueling battle with cancer. His friends Jean Prescott and Rich O'Brien got with engineer Aaron Meador and put together this wondrous collection of poems interpreted by their author as only he could...and more! With wonderfully appropriate acoustic guitar accompaniment by O'Brien, we hear again about the tragic "Johnny Clare," we appreciate the rough-hewn cowboy proposal in "The Open Gate," we grin at McWhorter's portraits of brash hands gettin' their comeuppance in works like "The Red Cow" and "Peaches and the Twister." And thirteen more on the first CD alone. Then comes CD number two...

Reading McWhorter classics are fellow poets Red Steagall, Andy Hedges, Chris Isaacs, Dennis Flynn, Oscar Auker, and included are two technical masterworks allowing McWhorter to "appear" as he'd always wanted to with Waddie Mitchell! Lump in the throat time! The great Jesse Smith is present too, which prompts my own memory of Larry McWhorter. In a rickety announcer booth I once sat with Jesse Smith offering "color commentary" on the doin's at a ranch rodeo thrown north of Red River, New Mexico. It was held in conjunction with a Western event, and certain of the cowboy entertainers were challenged to participate "if'n they was real by-gawd cowboys!" The team of Rod Taylor, Larry McWhorter, Chuck Cusimano and (I think) Buster McLaury more than showed the crowd they were every bit the real deal that mud soaked day!

This double album is a stunner. Listening to these words, we can fully realize what we had...and because these fine folks cared so much, now also what we have!

(All profits from sales go to benefit the Colorado non-profit equine therapy program Rein Of Glory).

2-CD set: $25 ppd through Prescott Music, PO Box 194, Ovalo, Texas 79514; www.jeanprescott.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Riding with Jim
Andy Nelson

If you go to cowboy poetry events, get the books or CDs or listen to C.O.W. Radio, you almost surely know something about Andy Nelson's dad from some of Andy's poetic tributes to him. In "Riding With Jim" you now get to know James F. Walker Nelson on a first name basis.

What you might not have known before is that Andy's dad was a writer too, and evidently a darned good one. Samples of his work are here as proof along with Andy's, and it makes for a fascinating, one-of-a-kind book. In reviewing it, I was briefly tempted to call it a "scrapbook in words, images and verse" but it's really more. And I considered "a journey" but it's really several. Then I came up with "a lively, true Western portrait of family and friends, lives and a lifestyle, with all the moments, magic, misadventures and craziness that creates heartfelt warmth and makes for one of those great reads you are truly glad you invested the time with!" But that would end in a preposition, and just how much space do you think I have here? Suffice it to say as you move from story to poem to picture to reflection to gut busting laugh-maker and back again, you will have a marvelous ride...and not wonder one whit what to call it!

Andy Nelson calls it Riding With Jim. How 'bout you just call it "yours!"

Book: $25 ppd (hardcover) from Andy Nelson, PO Box 1547, Pinedale, WY 82941 Phone (307) 367-2842 www.cowpokepoet.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

The Night Ol' Flukie Foundered
DW Groethe

I continue to be delighted at the outcropping of the old literary form called the "chapbook." And that old literary and singin' varmint DW Groethe has found in them yet another format to use to amuse and amaze!

D.W. is always good for grins and thoughtful spins, and this collection delivers both in heaps. Perhaps the epic title poem should come with one of those medical warnings, like "not suggested for use near food!!" Although painfully funny, the thing brings to mind a particularly grisly spittoon joke that I knew as a lad and could be counted on to purposely render at the most inappropriate moments. I'd tell it to D.W. but he might rhyme it up and put it in the next book!

You can find deep solace through the word portraits he expertly paints in pieces like "Star Cavvy" and "When There's Frost Upon The Ponies." He takes you to the heart of it when he talks about lookin' "Over Yonder" and offers one suitable for a town bully boy to roar in "Cerberus Rising!" And just when you're in danger of gettin' downright dewey-eyed, he rides to the comedic rescue with items like "He Ate A Bug," "Bully Tom Gets His," "Breakin' A Sweat" or "The Ballad Of Murphy's Outhouse!"

Chapbooks are good quick company. In this one DW Groethe gives you the same good dose of True Cowboy he always does, and that's the top compliment I can give.

Book: $15 ppd from DW Groethe, Box 144, Bainville, MT 59212; 406-769-2312

© 2010, Rick Huff

Ridin' In
Janice Gilbertson

Based on the clearly drawn portraits of people we meet in the opening piece, "Angela," and the connected poem, "The Rough Stock Rider's Kid," that follows it, I thought there was a story being formed in prose and poetry. But I guess they dissolved into the visions and doings of The West...revealed through successive poems and profiles in Janice Gilbertson's chapbook Riding In. And really, that would be sort of a Western thing for them to have done.

Whether Gilbertson is musing on the reasons for the cowboy life in "I'd Say" and its companion verse "Maybe It's Your Calling," calling attention to the wonder of "Pasture Frogs" that seem to grow when you add a drop of water or relating an encounter...possibly the final one...with an old, favorite horse, she gives you fuel for thought. Your smile or your tear of recognition is your payoff!

For the most part the new breed of chapbooks that have appeared fairly recently are excellent mini-prompts for us. They give us little reality checks and lighter moments. The best of them provide a vital breath or two of real Cowboy oxygen! Janice Gilbertson's Riding In has your air mask at-the-ready...

Book: $11 ppd from Janice Gilbertson, PO Box 350, King City, CA 93930.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Cora's Cowgirl Yodel
Cora Rose Wood

In our genre apparently young never gets old! Cora Rose Wood is the latest cute little one on the Western circuit.

Barely bigger than her guitar, Cora (daughter of Western entertainer Laurie Wood) is enthusiastic and certainly displays the potential, particularly in yodeling, to make the mighty jump past novelty into seasoned performer that many of her predecessors have not managed to make. I've said it before, and it applies here. Kids' material needs to be carefully chosen. I will always be uneasy about three-, five- and ten-year-olds singing "I Wanta Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart" and yet every last one of 'em is made to tackle it. On this album Cora also does "I Didn't Know The Gun Was Loaded!"

Conversely Will Dudley's "Itty Bitty Outlaw" is quite delightful and well suited to Cora, and some added mini-poems of hers sustain the novelty. Her "Goodbye Old Paint" (here just called "Old Paint") is very cute in its bone-weary contradiction. And the title track "Cora's Cowgirl Yodel" apparently is a co-write with singer/songwriter Paul Harris.

There are seven songs and, as we said, three very brief poems. Oh, well...she's eight, she's cute...whadaya want?

CDs: $13 ppd from Wood Western Music, HC 63 Box 18 C, Saratoga, WY 82331 or online through www.woodwesternmusic.com.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Other Peoples' Cattle
Cowboy Celtic

Here come some of the undisputed standard bearers in promoting Western's strong connection to its green roots. Cowboy Celtic returns with another emerald in their string of CDs!

Always featuring top-notch performances, a release from Cowboy Celtic is great listening for most any audience you might choose. On Other People's Cattle the band shows some more Celtic connections to cowboy classics ("When The Work's All Done This Fall" with "The Humour's On Me Now" and "The Water Is Wide" with "O Waly Waly"). Here you'll also find new cowboy songs done with an "Old Country" lilt, such as David Wilkie's "Hole In The Wall" and "Lady Margaret Hamilton" (no, not the wicked witch!) plus jigs, reels and waltzes suitable for playin' at a barn dance in the West or on the auld sod. The title track, written by a friend of the group, tells of a life spent taking care of cattle the cowboy doesn't own and never will. Fourteen tracks total.

Just as those other interpreters of Irish in the West Prickly Pair do on their albums, Cowboy Celtic founder David Wilkie nicely annotates each track in the liner notes, making for a CD that is informative as well as being greatly entertaining. Obviously, this one is highly recommended!

CDs: $16.99 plus postage through www.cowboyceltic.com.

© 2010, Rick Huff

The Gypsy Cowman—A Vanishing Breed
produced by Linda Lou Crosby

Badgett's Law For Younger People: Never break your word, never lie to yourself, never quit trying, be proud and be observant. That "code of conduct" list is the shortest I've ever seen from a cowboy hero. And make no mistake, in the real sense, as evidenced in film producer Linda Lou Crosby's excellent DVD portrait of Gypsy Cowman and cowboy poet Owen Badgett, that description is not too much to apply.

His code is him. And strict adherence to the five key points in it are all that's needed to become the true person, the persistent person and the rounded person others can rely upon. Knowing you can count on each other out on the tough eastern Montana plains is a major part of this story, wonderfully photographed and told. It's a loveably cantankerous cowboy we meet here, who loves riding his horse "Sinatra," although he'll buck at any excuse! By definition, the "Gypsy Cowman" is a fellow who runs cattle he owns on the lands of others and in turn helps on that ranch and others. It's done by agreement...the giving of your word...and not by any contracts. And the DVD proves its point about the "vanishing breed" as it watches Owen retire and move into town (where there are nine people...how will he stand the bustle of it?).

The economy of production, and by that I mean not belaboring any aspect, makes this DVD flow so nicely. It has momentum, it's fun, it's illustrative and you get a very clear feeling of the man, the people and the moment thanks to the storytelling and editing ability of its creator. Crosby is the daughter of former Roy Rogers leading lady Linda Hayes and the sister of actresses Cathy Lee Crosby and Lucinda Crosby, by the way. She grew up with a love of Western values and she certainly recognized a good story in her much respected friend Owen Badgett. In reporting it she has brought her news background to the task.

In reviewing, I have a "code" I use as well, actually learned in Theatre. It's Goethe's Points of Criticism: What are the artists trying to say, do they say it well, and is it worth saying. Based on the criteria expressed there and what I saw in Linda Lou Crosby's creation, I'm prepared to make a statement about The Gypsy Cowman—A Vanishing Breed: For my money, it's the best I've ever seen.

DVD: $20 ppd through www.inyokernhorsehotel.com or call Linda Lou Crosby at 760-377-5001.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Scofield's Cowboy Campfire
produced by Nashville West Studios

The material featured here is drawn from across the course of a full season of Western music performers, cowboy poets and storytellers at the popular Red Mule Ranch dinner shows in Fiddletown, California. Scofield's Cowboy Campfire shows have been a treasured destination for more than a decade, and this DVD tour of performances will give you a very good idea why.

Put together by Nashville West Studios, the style of presentation is more "quick-cut" than you may have seen done before in our genre. Interspersed in the style of music videos are lots of cutaways to other Western images as a song or poem proceeds, but never locking down too long. Also, interview clips and poems are actually arranged into the songs themselves, which may raise a hackle or three on the necks of some purists, but hey! Their hackles need exercise too! This technique of editing is aimed at "today's folks" with their proven computer-shaped attention spans. It's almost certain to be the best way to grab whatever power of concentration they have left.

Performers include Tom Scofield himself, Joni Harms, Eli Barsi, Juni Fisher, the Old West Trio, Sourdough Slim, Doris Daley, Jim King, McAvoy Layne, Bob Christensen, Karen & Jim Ross and Dave Stamey.

Scofield's Cowboy Campfire on DVD is still a kick. Pick it up! You'll get a strong sense of what some of "the best Western has to offer" is offering.

DVD: $25 ppd check or money order to Scofield's Cowboy Campfire, PO Box 12, Fiddletown, CA 95629 or online by credit card through www.scofieldscowboycampfire.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Westerners
Nevada Slim and Cimarron Sue

Nevada Slim & Cimarron Sue (a.k.a. Bruce & Susan Matley) are two of the West Coast specialists in the state and county fair circuits. They're back with that mix of originals and classics their fans have come to expect.

Sue's rangy cowgirl character and Slim's light opera effect make for a different kind of blend, but it's one they have developed over time and they're obviously comfortable with it. A couple of the original picks are "I Ride The Range (The Modern Way)" (a novelty on the changed way of doing it) and "Cowboy's Farewell" (lost love and what might have been). A curious novelty version of "Don't Fence Me In" casts Sue in the lead as a female Wildcat Kelly, adding a verse about Wildcat's fella trying unsuccessfully to settle her down!

Jack Hannah's not-so-often-done piece "The West" is here, as are some of the more commonly done works like "Cattle Call," "They Call The Wind Mariah," "Coyotes" and "Happy Trails." Sixteen music tracks, several of which sport Peter Evasick (fiddle/harmonica/slide guitar) and George Radebaugh (accordion).

CDs: $14.95 ppd or download single songs for $.99 through www.cdbaby.com/cd/NevadaSlimCimarronSue

© 2010, Rick Huff

Wind in the Wire
Ed Stabler with Kelly Henson

One of the founders of the Western Music Association is back, and proves he actually never left!

Ed Stabler has brought along a new associate, too. Kelly Henson provides backup vocals with acoustic bass support and she's a welcome addition. Ed Stabler has always been the proof in performance that a genuine cowboy or Western rustic approach can still be musical. On his new release the baritone balladeer from Texas offers twelve tracks with subjects and sounds as divergent as "Sheriff" Jim Wilson's "Agua Verde Crossing," Gary McMahan's "Old Double Diamond" and Gary Fjellgaard's masterpiece "Reins Of Glory" to Red Lane's "The Day I Jumped From Uncle Harvey's Plane," Donnie Blanz & Ed Bruce's "How Do You Do That?," and Joe Primrose's "St. James Infirmary!!"

Stabler is known for his intense integrity and devotion to things truly Western and his work in putting melodies to great poems of Badger Clark and Henry Herbert Knibbs among others, and introducing them to new audiences. If perhaps elapsed time has caused you not know him, please let this serve as your introduction. Listeners and CD buyers? I'd like you to meet Ed...

CDs: $15 plus $3 s/h from Ed Stabler, PO Box 1030, Mertzon, TX 76941-1030 or call (325) 8345-5023.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Clean Outta Luck
Mary Kaye

As a singer Mary Crawford Knaphus (a.k.a."Mary Kaye") brings to the table one of the more captivating vocal presentations to come along in a good while.

She boasts a wider than usual vocal range (from soprano to near bass), a very tight vibrato and dead-on accurate pitch across wide note spreads. They give her plenty of tools with which to express her music and she's obviously in control of all of them.

This CD, with its solid acoustic guitar accompaniment and interesting content, provides a terrific showcase for Mary Kaye's sweet to sassy performances. As a songwriter she is apparently equally at home with writing ballads, novelties or saga songs. Nine of the CD's twelve songs are originals. Any of them are strong enough to be picked up by other artists, but particularly ripe for covers are the title track "Clean Outta Luck," "Three Nooses," "Lucy LaRue" and "Cowboy Waltzin' Across Her Mind."

No tray card came with the demo CD furnished for review, so I can't credit the fine guitar work on it. Just know it is fine. Also I have not been able to discover how to purchase the CD. Just get it if you see it!

© 2010, Rick Huff

[Find Mary Kaye at: marykayemusic.blogspot.com; www.myspace.com/marykayemusic; and on Facebook as Mary Kaye Knaphus]

Bittersweet Cowboy Reflections
Benjamin Dehart

Here's a Florida cowboy singer who brings with him his heritage of the Cow Hunters or, as he calls them in his cover letter, "Florida's cracker cow culture!" And he does it with a powerful Irish or Welsh-type tenor voice, somewhat in the tradition of a John Denver, only stronger.

Benjamin Dehart's superior vocal control is exhibited in songs like his "Ranch Rodeo Sweetheart," with perfect execution of a deceptively tricky slow yodel that moves dangerously close above and below the break in his voice. I wonder how many yodelers would even attempt it!

The swinging track "Sold My Saddle Blues" is feisty fun with two capital "Fs!" Other nice originals from Dehart (based on real experiences) include "7000 Feet And Sixteen Hands Closer To Heaven," "Wind River Rose," and there are three collaborations with Dehart's music being applied to lyrics from others. There's even a poem, "Hats & Boots," convincingly delivered and mounted with sound effects. And there are saga songs like "Incident At Ocean Pond a.k.a. Olustee" and the classics "Little Joe the Wrangler," folk's Western song, "South Coast," and "Streets Of Laredo." On that one I have a crediting question. Dehart cites "lyrics by Harry Stephens c. 1876." Most, including the practically infallible Jim Bob Tinsley, say the cowboy consolidation of the lyrics came from Francis Henry Maynard, at Tom Sherman's Bar in Dodge City, Kansas in that same year 1876.

Regardless, this is an extraordinary album in content and performance. Oh yes...in case people (such as DJs) aren't sure of the pronunciation of his name, Benjamin Dehart took care of that...by naming his studio "Straight From Dehart Productions."

CDs: $15 ppd through www.thecrackertenor.com.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Counting the Cost
Liz Adair

He is Heck Benham, a striking handsome young cowboy with barely more than his saddle and his Levis to his name. She is Ruth Reynolds, a lovely and free-spirited woman, caught in an abusive loveless marriage with the "bean counter" hired by Heck's respected rancher boss. Maybe the passion that builds between them was never meant to be, but certainly it was never allowed to be in the straight-laced, southern New Mexico ranching society of the 1930s depicted in Liz Adair's Western romance novel, Counting The Cost. Will they decide to throw caution to the whistling Western wind? And could they weather the consequences...

Westerner Liz Adair is the best-selling author of the Spider Latham mystery series. In her first Western novel, the plot moves at sort of a Bridges Of Madison County pace. Mostly the inevitable is played out against the leisurely, but with the staccato points of a lightening strike, a bucking horse or a fist to the face. You nearly feel the remote silence, the single bird off in a field, or a distant slamming door. Moreover, Adair displays an intimate knowledge of the cowboys' work, gear and lives. It's revealed in the details. For instance, there's a description of Heck and the hands working the remuda by forming a living corral with their ropes stretched between them that I don't recall ever before seeing in print or alluded to in song.

Adair writes in her book's Acknowledgements and Dedication that it was inspired by family gossip of an uncle who got himself into such a situation, and the story just delivered itself to her. You might like it delivered to you!

Book: $17.95 softcover (335 pages) from www.Inglestonepublishing.com.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Stuff That Works
Criddles & McCords

Stuff That Works is basically a comfy, low-key collection (not just because Van & Dallas have deep voices)!

Individually they are cowboy poet Van Criddle & wife Kathy Criddle and West Coast radio hosts Dallas & P.J. McCord. And besides being the Guy Clark-penned title track, Stuff That Works also describes the concept of the CD. No pretense. Just songs that have powerfully affected listeners, songs with poems that dovetail together, proven audience favorites and requests. In other words, stuff that works.

Fans of the quartet get a horn o' plenty here. Along with seven original Van Criddle poems, they've included homespun takes of songs from Juni Fisher ("The Same River" and "I Hope She'll Love Me"), Donnie Blanz & Ed Bruce ("Just Can't See Him From The Road"), R.J. Vandygriff ("Cowgirl's Promise"), Terri Taylor ("Wyoming Waltz"), David Anderson & Les Buffham ("Up On The High Ground") and others. Twenty tracks total.

One crediting issue needs to be cleared up. "Sunset Trail" is actually from R.W. Hampton, not "unknown."

CDs: $15 ppd from Van & Kathy Criddle, 2034 Laurelhurst, Eugene, OR 97402, or Dallas & PJ McCord, 240 Blue Jay Loop, Creswell, OR 97426. Emails: vcrdd@comcast.net or dallasmccord@yahoo.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Horsegirl Poet
Aspen Black

Horsegirl Poet is an unusual title for a rather unusual performer. Black wrote the 19 tracks and, with the exception of three studio-recorded songs, she recorded and mastered the CD, played all the instruments (acoustic and 12-string guitar, acoustic bass, fiddle, mandolin, and percussion), shot her own album photos, and executed the graphics for the CD jacket! She writes that she wanted to see if she could do all of the aspects of the album herself. Quite an accomplishment. That having been said and done, it should be pointed out that there are "sound" reasons for having some other qualified ears and eyes involved.

There is more technical flange filtering on the voice than many Western listeners will be accustomed to. And as many Western music purchasers are elderly, the visual choice of fine white print on a black field may prevent the reading of the song titles and notes.

Her vocal quality is high, light and lyrical. It would probably lend itself to Folk as well. In this CD the subjects are Cowboy and New Age. Many of the songs lean toward a mystical vision of the West. The poetry is delivered dramatically and mounted with a good deal of theatricality in the sound effects and musical support. In content it alternates between spiritual, cowboy spirit and self examination. They're unique and pretty interesting.

I believe Aspen Black has a unique vision to offer in Western, and that it will, and should, come to the fore. With the right assistance, those gifts will be allowed to shine in the optimal light.

CD: $18.95 ppd to Aspen Black, Buksbari Ranch, 90 Buksbari Lane, Rocky Mount, VA 24151; www.horsegirlpoet.com.

© 2010, Rick Huff

A Good Ride
Bill Hearne

That's what Bill Hearne gives these songs, and that's what you get listening to them as well! A good ride!

The gravel-voiced master interpreter of Honky Tonk and Western who helped launch the Austin Music scene returns with a great collection. The title track is from Lyle Lovett, another good friend of Hearne's who he helped early on in his career. Other fine Western tracks include his buddy Chuck Pyle's "Endless Sky," Bill Staines' "Sweet Wyoming Home," "Ian Tyson's "That Old Cowboy," and Darrell Statler's "Honky Tonk Stardust Cowboy." That track makes for a good subject transition, since with Bill Hearne the Honky Tonk is never far away.

The engaging Allison Anders/Dean Lent song "Border Radio" kicks things off and it just gets more danceable from there with songs from more Hearne friends! Shake Russell's "You've Got A Lover," Delbert McClinton's "Object Of My Affection and "I Wanta Thank You Babe," and the list goes on. Wife and long-time singing partner Bonnie Hearne is on two of the tracks on this swinging, stompin' CD from Don Richmond's Howlin' Dog studios in Alamosa...rapidly becoming a go-to place for seekers of production quality in the Rockies! Nineteen tracks in all, and not a misfire in the bunch!

CDs: $15 ppd through www.frogvilleplanet.com or contact Bill at (505) 690-2514.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Songs Along the Trail
The Desert Sons

Southern Arizona's Western harmony meisters have a fresh release that reaffirms their prowess in that department.

The Desert Sons were the group onto which my Western Music mentor Hi Busse wanted to confer the name of his own classic group The Frontiersmen when he was considering retiring from touring..."considering" being about as far as that ever went! At the time (the early '90s) he said they were the one group he'd encountered who really understood how to do it right. It's safe to say nothing in this newest album would have changed his mind on that.

Buck Ryberg (lead vocal/rhythm guitar), Benny Young (fiddle/accordion/vocals), Skelly Boyd (lead guitar/vocals), and Slim Tighe (acoustic bass/vocals) are joined on two tracks by former Sons members Bill Ronstadt (bass/vocals) and Bill Ganz (guitar/vocals). Fans of the band will be happy to know a new version of their popular theme song "Arizona Home" is here, along with other Ryberg originals that have proven to be favorites ("Song Of Lupita," "Blue Colorado Skies," "Sundown Song," and "Nightherd Lullaby"). They always offer classics and a rarity or two. Among the former are Stan Jones' "Song Of The Trail," Marty Robbins' "El Paso," Rex Allen's "Arizona Cowboy" and the Powell-Samuels-Whitcup standard "Take Me Back To My Boots & Saddle." The rarities? Joe Babcock's "Dusty Winds" (yes, he wrote something besides "Doggone Cowboy!") and Pearl Walla's "Will There Be Sagebrush In Heaven." And the Sons even swing a little with Hoyle Nix's "Big Ball's In Cowtown!" Twenty tracks in all.

CDs: $17 ppd through www.thedesertsons.com or The Desert Sons, 3919 E. Whittier St., Tucson, AZ 85711.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Sons Of The Pioneers & Guests 75th Anniversary Show Volume I
Sons of the Pioneers and various artists

In the summer of 2009 I had the good fortune of seeing this incarnation of the Sons Of The Pioneers live on their home stage at Shepherd Of The Hills in Branson, Missouri. They were, and are, every bit the classic group that Roy, Bob and Tim would have wanted them to still be. The special "secrets" of the harmony blend were there, perfectly captured and balanced the way Lloyd Perryman would have wanted...and the way their then hospitalized leader Dale Warren would have expected. The Pioneers, as a group and individually, are gems in the crown of Western Music. As of now the Sons Of The Pioneers are leader Luther Nallie, Ricky Boen, Ken Lattimore, Gary LeMaster, Randy Rudd and Mark Abbott.

I'm reiterating those positive points in order to say the following. While this DVD release, videoed live at the Texas Troubadour Theatre, certainly maintains enough of the Pioneers' blend to please their fans and to show what the current members offer, too often it simply isn't the true effect of this group. The fault lies in the audio mixing of the performances. Most notably when powerful tenors Randy Rudd and Ken Lattimore are handling harmony chores, the melody line simply isn't there. It's very apparent in some of the earliest songs on the DVD, such as "When Payday Rolls Around," "Red River Valley" and "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo Git Along Little Dogies" (listed as "Doggie" on the jacket, incidentally!). The mix issues may have been due to some young, unsupervised sound mixer or mastering engineer who was not familiar with the songs' melodies.

Please don't get me wrong. There is much to like about the DVD, and it should certainly have a place in anyone's Sons Of The Pioneers collection. Guest performers with the Pioneers Charlie McCoy and Connie Smith are nice additions as well. Many of the songs that feature the tenors on lead rather than harmony come off with a closer to correct balance. There are phenomenal performances and terrific fiddling, touching tributes and sweet memories in the interview clips. It's just that any media through which we preserve our most valuable treasures need to preserve them accurately. Alas, in my view at least, this particular one doesn't completely fulfill that sacred duty.

DVD: $18.99 through www.SonsofthePioneersDVD.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

The Old & The New
Diamond W Wranglers

With this latest release, the "Diamond Dubs" continue to establish their standing as some of the most accomplished creators of the music on our planet!

The title of the CD says it. It's a mixture of new originals and some classics. But the album also says something else. Their harmonic mastery of the genre is demonstrated, and we find clear proof that there's room to expand creatively within Western music's basic framework. With brilliant arrangements like their take on "Cool Water" the war horses come off seeming as fresh as real cool water! Their "Goodbye Old Paint" is the popular meld of that song with "I'm Leavin' Cheyenne" and it's done elegantly. Townes van Zandt's enigmatic "Pancho & Lefty" is more tempo driven in their hands. Charlie Daniels' "Billy The Kid" is here in a show-stopping form (Stu Suart proves he can 'Jimi Hendrix' with thte best of 'em and still bring Western music audiences to their feet in roaring approval)! "Tom Dooley" and "Chant Of The Plains" round out the classic content.

Originals here include Stuart's terrific horse tale "El Comancho" and "Cyclone Song" (a track I'd bet Bob Nolan would have been happy to claim) and Jim Farrell's dramatic outlaw ballad "Seven Days." All are likely candidates to be picked up by other artists. And the band takes one novelty step toward making their case for all music to have been "cowboy" in origin with "They Do Run!"

This CD is great fun, great music...Great Scott, you aren't ordering it yet?!

CD: $20 ppd through www.diamondwwranglers.com or from Diamond W Wranglers, PO Box 444, Towanda, KS 67144 or call toll free 1-866-830-8283.

© 2010, Rick Huff

True Love
Rebecca Linda Smith

Rebecca Linda Smith brings a Doris Day-reminiscent vocal quality to the task posed in this CD project, and strong production values help put it all across. Smith's performance and the sure-footed instrumental backing from Mike Shrimp's band rise above some occasional well-intentioned lyrics that fail to fit the musical phrasing that hosts them.

Former Shenandoah lead singer Marty Raybon joins Smith on a Randy Albright's Country ballad "Not Knowing Anymore." It's a pretty nice one and it is the CD's strongest track. Another good effort is the song "Come As You Are" from Austin Cunningham and Sunny Ross. Beyond that there are two essentially Western tracks on the CD. The notes that accompanied the album state that Smith, who has primarily been in the Country Gospel area before this, is moving into more secular material with this release. An evangelistic thread runs through much of it anyway. With the founder of the Christian Country Music Association producing, I suspect it had better!

If Rebecca Linda Smith continues to pursue more secular material...and with her performing gifts I sincerely hope she does...she will definitely benefit if she chooses to employ careful A & R and production guidance in that direction. Hear samples at www.cdbaby.com (search "Rebecca Linda Smith").

CDs: $14.97 ppd through www.renewedrecords.com and www.rlsrenewed.com , and also through www.cdbaby.com and www.backfortybunkhouse.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Work in Progress
Broken Chair Band

Todd & Melinda Carter run a small cow-calf outfit in Queen Valley, Arizona called "The Broken Chair." The brand is his "T" and her "M" run together in a way that makes them resemble, well, a broken chair. So when they formed into a band they naturally just rode for the brand!

Their second CD release has the feel of a neighborhood band. There are a lot of styles heard in Western music. This duo may have been influenced by a particular Native American style of Country found in Arizona. At least that effect is present, with keyboard, guitar and drum. There are a couple of poems here as well. "Like Patsy Cline" is fairly obviously a song converted to a poem, in which the guy finds himself "walkin" after midnight' after a nightclub Patsy Cline imitator he's infatuated with turns out to be married. Another poem is "Ridin' Ol' Jug Head," in which the cowboy swears off ever mounting the one-way ticket to broken bones again! The song "You Ain't No Cowman" ties into a rich rancher wannabe with the admonition "don't be thinkin' you deserve this ranch from the comfort of your Cadillac...the ghosts of cowmen, they walk this land...someday they might just take it back!" Other Western songs include "God Made The Cowboy" and "Can't Stop Progress" which contains the line "you can't stop progress no matter how you try, but you can pick up the pieces after it rolls by..."

They named the CD "Work In Progress." It's true. They say in their cover letter their subjects are drawn from their experiences, and their all-original songs are in a style someone dubbed "Americowboyfolkgrass!" You'd have to decide if even that fits.

CDs: $14 ppd from Broken Chair Band, 735 Tornado Trail, Queen Valley, AZ 85118-7425. Online the CD is available for $12.97 through www.cdbaby.com (search "Broken Chair Band") and there the digital download is $9.99 and individual songs for $.99. www.brokenchairband.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Cowboy Songs
Mark Compere

In the notes, Mark Compere freely admits getting to make this CD was a gift from two backers, and it's a hoot to play it for others.

The album is just what the title says it is. It's a grouping of some of the best known cowboy songs. The ten tracks are "I'd Like To Be In Texas When They Round Up In The Spring," "Little Joe The Wrangler," "The Colorado Trail," "Night Rider's Lament," "The Strawberry Roan," "The Streets Of Laredo," "Bad Half Hour," "Prairie Lullaby," "Tying Knots In The Devil's Tail" and "Red River Valley." And Compere's rendering of them is more like a regular cowboy would do it rather than a primped and primed stage performer.

Compere (vocal and rhythm guitar) is joined in the effort by Kevin Carter (fiddle), Bryan Harkness (lead guitar & dobro) and Caitlyn Neuenfeldt (cello!).

I recently encountered a gentleman who expressed a view of Western music I have indeed heard before. As I began telling him about a forthcoming Western event, he stopped me short. With a glint in his eye that could have come from a bygone era, he said "they don't 'croon' and do that frilly harmony (expletive) do they? I don't like it gussied...just the cowboy and the guitar!" Well, don't shoot, Mister! Some musicians showed up, but basically this one's for you!

CDs: $$15 ppd through www.backfortybunkhouse.com/cdchorale

© 2010, Rick Huff

The State Songs Vol. 2
Rick Pickren

Take one part "banners unfurled," two parts "sons and daughters proudly stand," add a dash of "bounteous yields o'erflowing" and what have you cooked up? Your standard batch of Official State Songs. And, likely for most, a not hugely palatable prospect for a CD collection. At least it might be the case for artists possessing less moxie than Rick Pickren. He's back for Round Two!

If you have ever been curious about America's often-tucked-away State Songs, these CDs are certainly the means through which they can be not only tolerable for you but downright enjoyable! The songs given the spruce up in Volume 2 are those of Arizona ("Arizona March Song"), New Mexico ("O Fair New Mexico"), Minnesota ("Hail! Minnesota"), Colorado ("Where The Columbines Grow"), Alabama ("Alabama"), Iowa ("Song Of Iowa"), North Dakota ("North Dakota Hymn"), Arkansas ("Arkansas"), Massachusetts ("All Hail To Massachusetts"), Montana ("Montana"), Texas ("Texas, Our Texas") and Mississippi ("Go, Mississippi"). Chart busters all! But Pickren treats each with earnest conviction and feeling, and in the arrangements he has some fun. For my own state of New Mexico, the 1912 song "O Fair New Mexico" was written by Elizabeth Garrett, the heralded "Songbird Of The Southwest" and daughter of Sheriff Pat Garrett. I'm a New Mexico native and I've only heard the stodgy thing perhaps twice before. Rick Pickren's take on it converts it to a subtle, sultry cha-cha!! I love it...even though he does pronounce Nuevo as "noo-ay-voh" rather than the correct two-syllable "nweh-vo." We'll forgive him. He's a East'er!

My one regret is that the songs don't come with notes as to their origins. Wait a minute! Considering politics...maybe those sleeping dogs should lie...

CDs: $12.99 plus $2 s/h from Big Strike Productions, 122 Ashland Avenue, River Forest, Illinois 60305, email rickpickren@yahoo.com or order MP3 downloads for $9.99 through www.bigstrikemusic.com.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Southwestern Serenade
Patty Parker

When Comstock Records decides to issue an original CD, the partners in business and life who run it (Frank Fara & Patty Parker) tend to not skimp on the production end. This new release showcasing Patty's talents is no exception.

Nashville session players are backing her on the tracks, and the effort shows. Of particular note in the collection are the pretty track "Crystal Canyon," her song written some years back in tribute to Dale Evans (apparently quite popular with Dale herself), "She Rode A Horse Called Buttermilk" and "Navajo Land" (which exhibits more than a passing understanding of the people and the culture). And although I am seldom fond of religious material, I have to say that musically at least "When Mama Prayed" is really quite a nice track.

Other tracks on the CD are "Song Of The Grand Canyon," "Hotel Saguaro" (a cute concept about the life that inhabits the various levels of the giant succulents), "Sedona Serenade," "Tips For Stagecoach Travellers " (a sort of novelty track that is also to be found on Frank Fara's last release) and "La Noche Buena - It's Christmas Eve."

CDs: $15 ppd (outside the US $18) from Comstock Records, LTD., PO Box 19720, Fountain Hills, AZ 85269 and digital downloads are available through iTunes and www.amazon.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Ridin' For The Brand
Flying W Wranglers

Longtime Western fans have come to expect a certain sound from the various Chuckwagons Of America "house bands." For example, at one time they'd have known the Bar D Wranglers in Durango by Cy Scarborough's tenor and Jerry Baxter's contra bass voices in the blend. Or the Bar J Wrangler's from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, who had Babe Humpheys' wonderful bass voice and his sons' rich blend above him. That sound signature has very much been true for the flagship group of the Chuckwagons, the venerable Flying W Wranglers from Colorado Springs. Vern Thompson's cutting edge was as much a print on their sound as Bob Nolan's was on the Sons Of The Pioneers. They were the group that launched the others, and one version or another of it has been performing each season up on that mountainside since the early 1950s.

What all that has to do with this release from the new edition of the Flying W Wranglers is this. Some of the CDs released by the Chuckwagon bands are additionally collectible, you might say, because they show the group involved in transition. This one is just such a transitional album. The Bar D's had one some years ago that featured all tenor and high baritone harmony! Very well done, but perhaps not what the longtime fans would have expected to hear.

These new guys are certainly "Ridin' For The Brand" and will settle into the big Size W boots, of that you can be certain. Ronnie Cook (vocal, guitar, bass guitar, dobro, mandolin, banjo) remains from the last incarnation, and he recorded and produced this CD. The other guys are Tony Ludiker (vocal, fiddle, guitar, mandolin); Jayson Jones (vocal, mandolin, guitar); Wayne Humphrey (vocal, bass guitar) and David Gooley (vocal, guitar). Many Chuckwagon staples are here including "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds" (here just cited as "Tumble Weeds") and "Cool Water" done as a medley, "Timber Trail," "Miss Molly," "Trail To San Antone," "Texas Plains" and a rendering of "Rindercella." Also here is Jack Hannah's "Silver Spurs," Darrell Arnold's "My Colorado Home," Foy Willings' "Stampede" and others. Sixteen tracks in all.

CDs: $15 through www.flyingw.com or through Ronnie Cook, RLC Studio, 3330 Chuckwagon Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80919

© 2010, Rick Huff

My Sacred Ground
Fred Hargrove

Fred Hargrove is another of the artists in the Colorado west who have discovered Don Richmond's Howlin' Dog production studios in Alamosa near the New Mexico border. Once again it has proven to be a fortunate joining.

Fred provides vocals and acoustic guitar, James Doyle the drums and multi-instrumentalist Richmond fiddle, Indian flute, steel and electric guitar, percussion and who knows what-all! The title song on this particular album is personal and particularly important to Hargrove. He draws spiritual nutrition from it, as many have before him. But being the cowboy he'll still tell you, as he says in a certain classic song offered here, "don't fence me in...OR out!"

Hargrove offers a mix of song and poetry...Western and Country-styled material that suits him quite nicely. With this release and the previous one, I think it's safe to say Hargrove is on a roll. The performances are solid throughout and some grins are offered as in "The Indigestion Song" and a poem set to music "Bucky."

A packaging or marketing concept that has shown up on albums in recent years is the so-called "bonus track." I confess I don't quite understand the thinking behind it, but in case I'm just slow to catch on I'll faithfully report Fred has two "bonus tracks" on this CD. They are "Fire On The Mountain" and "Back In The Saddle Again." Fourteen tracks total.

CDs: $16 ppd from Fred Hargrove, PO Box 730, Monte Vista, CO 81144-0730. Email: raisinghranch@aol.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

The Ballad Of Kitty Jo
Mountain Saddle Band

A different "mix" is The Ballad Of Kitty Jo...in more ways than one.

The album is a mounting of eleven poems by Steve Taylor (not the one from STAMPEDE! and the WMA Presidency). Interspersed are ten songs from the band, mostly classics in keeping with the subjects of the poems, but there are original songs from band members Steve Harrington and Taylor too. A religious thread runs through much of it. Steve Taylor also created the nice CD cover and jewel case art!

The 'Kitty Jo' story runs through the poems. You'd swear she must be real, and maybe she was. But "she" was inspired by the name of a creek on Arizona's Mogollon Rim (actually "Kitty Joe"...and come to think of it another stream from that same basic area named for a girl inspired one Western group's name...Katy Creek!)

The Mountain Saddle Band is Stephen Harrington (rhythm guitar & lead vocals), Rusty Weiss (bass guitar and backup vocals) and Steve Taylor (Harmonica, vocals & poem recitations) with "Rooster Reeves guesting on mandolin and guitar. The performances are a mix of rough-hewn rustic and tight Western harmony. In the liner notes, the band lauds the recording and mastering people. I don't. They need to work with tech folks who are less enamored of audio compression, but I think the Mountain Saddle Band will have much more to show us in future releases.

CDs: $15 plus $3 through CD Baby.com, digistation, iTunes, or from The Mountain Saddle Band, www.mtnsaddleband.com, Steve Harrington, PO Box 91075, White Mountain Lake, AZ 85921.

© 2010, Rick Huff

At First Light
Tom Cole & Brian Salmond

We were told longtime performing partners Tom Cole (the singer) and Brian Salmond (the poet) put on a great show, and on their release At First Light they prove themselves to be all that Canadian radio show host Hugh McLennan promised they'd be!

Cole is a solid baritone singer and songwriter (and instrumentalist, on one of the tracks) who also delivers nice performances of Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds" and Darrel Scott's "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive," along with his own "Down On The Upper Pine" (one-room schoolhouse memories), and "In The Bunkhouse" (cowboy "down" time after the work is done). Poet Salmond is equally at home delivering his own hysterical, salty "Calving Stress" and "Bullpen Psychology" as he is his thoughtfully moving "Hands Of Time" and "Who Would Pack The Lantern."

Together Tom Cole and Brian Salmond have issued a very pleasant album. With six poems, five songs and one instrumental it's a good bet you'll find plenty to like!

CDs: $20 Canadian plus $3 s/h (not sure what that translates to in US...contact Tom Cole for a translation at tomcole@tomcole.net, www.tomcole.net, or www.canadiancowboy.ca.

© 2010, Rick Huff

I Wanted to Fly
Sandy Reay & Friends

Part of what is interesting about this CD is the number of Western performers who have joined in to participate in something that isn't specifically Western!

Well, not totally Western, anyway!

Sandy Reay alternately leans toward the Country side, the Boogie side, the Folk side, the Jazzy side, the Bluesy side, the Novelty side and the Whatever-Happens-To-Appeal-To-Her side. In other words she doesn't limit herself or her creativity. She wrote or co-wrote all fourteen of the album's tracks, and her songs are blessed with fresh and adventurous lyrics. And guess which Western performers you know hitched up for this ride...Ernie Martinez (frequent Western music side man and remembered for his group Everywhere West); the award winning singer/songwriter & Voice Of The Westerns Channel Bill Barwick; and the very popular singer/songwriter & session man from Colorado, Jon Chandler. And thirteen more!! When you find this kind of creative outpouring, it frequently means musicians found special value in participating. That certainly is evident here.

Sandy Reay is well known in Colorado's acoustic music circles. She shares the lead vocals on this collection with others including Christy Wessler, J.J. Fraser, B.J. Suter, Bob Turner along with Ernie, Bill and Jon. The album becomes a kind of show that way. From an entertainment standpoint, it was a smart choice. In her cover letter, Reay admits there are only three Western songs on the album, "One Lonely Rider," "Sandstorm From Sedona" and "Already Gone." They are really fine ones, too...songs that deserve to win a place in the repertoires of others.

A bunch of musicians have seen something special in this CD. And folks, a bunch of musicians don't agree on much!

CDs: $15 plus $3 s/l from S. L. Reay, PO Box 2261, Monument, CO 80132 with an order form online at iwantedtofly.com and available online through CD Baby and Digstation.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Bringing Water to the Land
Richard Martin

The title song is a portrait of a longtime New Mexico tradition. It's subject is the Major ("mah-your") Domo, the man whose task by tradition it was, and is, to govern and direct the water to his farming and ranching neighbors. As the song suggests, he's still out there in small communities to this day. It's indicative of the special New Mexico slant present in much of Richard Martin's music.

In Martin's "That's The Way She Goes" it's a hard-luck cowboy who is grousing about how things "didn't go so well workin' at The Bell" Ranch in middle northeastern New Mexico. The unique smell of New Mexico "Sage and Pine" spiritually centers a cowboy in that song. And the cowboy who recognizes the "End Of Summer" coming with the cattle moving tasks and chores connected to preparing for it will be familiar to anyone living the life or hearing about it in Western songs or cowboy poetry.

Being a falconer himself, in a stylistic flight of fancy Martin uses a reedy Indian flute effect in sort of a semi-Spanish way in "Peregrine," and then he even ventures into a little vintage boogie rock with "Dance Tio Tee." Not only are the virtues of "Home Cookin'" and "Raspberry Pie" extolled (maybe they were recording close to dinner?) but in a move related to the title track, an actual pinto bean is placed in the jewel case spine of the CD!!

I'll be interested to discover what Richard Martin comes up with in future releases as both his creativity and his production budget grow.

CDs: $15 plus $1.50 s/h from Richard Martin, HCR 69 Box 4-A, Embudo, NM 87531

© 2010, Rick Huff

Music Beneath The Mesa
Jonathan Lee Pickens & Friends

These folks get to do their pickin' in a very impressive place indeed! New Mexico's Inscription Rock bears the graffiti (well, "autographs" since it's historic!) of many early explorers and travelers through the wild county near the home of the Zuni people. The CD cover shows it, and in varying degrees the music on the album reflects the influence of the place.

Jonathan Lee Pickens (lead & harmony vocals, lead & Harmony guitar & charango) was a staff songwriter in Nashville for 16 years before moving to New Mexico's El Morro Valley, where he now owns Inscription Rock Trading & Coffee Company. "Oddly enough" it also has an outdoor performance space!!Pickens "& Friends" Don Grieser (mandolin, mandola & mandocello), Walker Lee Pickens (congas, drums, percussion), Cindi Anderson (harmony vocals) and Matt Salerno (bass) made good use of it in this recorded concert performance. Several of these fine acoustic tracks might be called "Western-related," but the specific songs bearing cowboy subject matter are "High Cheekbones" (about a Cowboy & Indian marriage gone south), "Holy Water" (a stove-up bronc buster is lying beneath what the Easterners call a "pine nut tree" as the rain comes down) and "Big Sky" (a city-trapped nearly crazed cowboy needs some shipped to him in one heck of a hurry).

Many of Pickens' lyrics are particularly fresh and involving. For example, in one of the Western songs we mentioned, "High Cheekbones," come lines such "soon the wind will blow across the prairie, soon I'll roll up in a blanket all alone...and I will stare into the depths of a starlit night, and see a trail of tears across your high cheekbones." In "Holy Water," the cowboy "looks up at that New Mexico sky clouds are bunchin' up instead of rollin' on by...cedars are whisperin' in the wind, talkin' 'bout the storm that's comin' in."

Music Beneath The Mesa is a very enjoyable collection...especially for those who aren't just out for "a ride."

CDs: $10 USD or $5 for various formats of digital download through jonathanleepickens.bandcamp.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Don't Ever Sell Your Saddle
Skeeter Mann & The Lost Canyon Rangers

Here's an album of Western cover songs that proves collections of material heard before can still be pleasing and fresh. And for this veteran California group, it's also their best release to date!

I happened to listen to this one rolling down the highway toward Tucson, and I found Skeeter Mann & The Lost Canyon Rangers to be very congenial company. Solid versions of songs from R.W. Hampton ("Donny Catch A Horse For Me"), Ian Tyson ("Fifty Years"), Jack Hannah ("Is It Because") and Wayne Carson ("A Horse Called Music") are among the interesting offerings here. Other pick tracks include Dick Feller's funny guess-who's-doin'-what song "Nancy Ann's Hotel," Michael Fleming's "My Only Love," and the saga song "Border Line." As a special treat, veteran performer Mayf Nutter puts in a guest appearance on his song "It Ain't No Rodeo."

There are eleven tracks in all. This CD is a quiet charmer.

CD: $15 through www.outwestmktg.com or from Skeeter Mann & The Lost Canyon Rangers, 4433 Murietta Ave. #11, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Appaloosa Moon
Tom Hiatt

"Frisky" is generally the kind of word you would use to maybe describe a colt...or a puppy, perhaps. Come to think of it you may spot aspects of both in the bouncing, wriggling enthusiasm of a Tom Hiatt performance!

The energy comes across through the microphone loud and clear. Apologies to Post, but in his hands (hooves or paws!) the CD's title track snaps, his "Take A Bronc To Breakfast" crackles and his ballad "Only Love He Knows" pops! His outlaw saga song "Rustler's Moon" (not the Jim Jones song that bears the same name) features a guest speaking appearance by The Voice of The Westerns Channel, Bill Barwick. Hiatt pays tribute to the tough cowboyin' it takes to work "The Wild P Bar" and his popular crowd participation song "Somethin' Warm & Soft" rounds out the collection. Eleven tracks, ten songs in all.

I first encountered Tom Hiatt (& The Sundown Riders) some years back inside Scottsdale's famous Rawhide Steakhouse entertaining and gettin' paid while we were outside at the Festival Of The West gettin' dust whipped. I shoulda known then he was onto something! Appaloosa Moon is a mighty entertaining CD from one of Western Music's most energetic performers. Wrangle it into your corral!

CD: $15 plus $2 s/h. To order, email Tom Hiatt through tom@tomhiatt.net as there is no direct online connection for purchase.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Lone Cowboy
Michael Martin Murphey

Strip away the reverb and filtering on the voice, the electrified guitars, the percussion and other production bluster on a CD and what do you have? This!

For the first time ever it's just Michael Martin Murphey, his guitar and the audience. Held since its recording in October of 2008, this CD lets listeners examine for themselves Murphey's dose of "it"...the basic reason an artist has star power! For here he is, unprocessed and ungussied, just like anybody else might do it, simply sitting down to play and sing.

Here are direct-to-you versions of his "Wildfire," "What Am I Doing Here," "Vanishing Breed," "Cherokee Fiddle," "Close To The Land," "Summer Ranges," "Long & Lonesome Road To Dalhart" and team-ups of his "Lone Cowboy" with his "Carolina In The Pines," his "Partner To The Wind" with Bob Nolan's "Cool Water" and Jack Thorp's "Little Joe The Wrangler" with the original and correct (if abridged) version of "Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie." In truth Murphey will also frequently slip into his songs unannounced passages of other appropriate songs to stir the soup...and it makes for a tasty dish.

"Lone Cowboy" is certainly one for his fans, and for others who may be curious as to what all the Murpheybaloo is about!

CD: $15 ppd from Western Jubilee Recording, PO Box 9187, Colorado Springs, CO 80932 or through www.westernjubilee.com and $15.98 ppd through www.michaelmartinmurphey.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Unwired
Wylie & the Wild West

Here is one of two so-called "unplugged" CDs received in the same mailing from Western Jubilee Recording in Colorado Springs. One was Michael Martin Murphey's and the other was a new live recording from Wylie & The Wild West entitled "Unwired!" And in this case the term has two different meanings, if not a third!!

We certainly don't want to give anyone the impression that Wylie and crew have totally forsaken their customary beat-driven spizz. It's just that on this one the carbonation is applied judiciously. Wylie's sensitive and expressive takes of classics such as "Goodbye Old Paint," "Cowpoke," "Cattle Call" and "America The Beautiful" share the stage with some of his and Paul Zarzyski's rambunctious collaborations such as "Rodeo To The Bone," "Double Wild" and "Ain't No Life After Rodeo." Intermixed are Wylie ballads that include "Ridin' The High Line," "I Get High," and "Where Horses Are Heroes." His and Joel Nelson's "Equus Caballus" is here, and to make sure you're paying attention...so are Buddy Holly's "Everyday" and the trucker fave "Girl On The Billboard."

For those who got pelted with rock from their last CD, this one from Wylie & The Wild West is toned down but hardly dead!!

CD: $15 ppd from two sources...Western Jubilee Recording, PO Box 9187, Colorado Springs, CO 80932 (or through www.westernjubilee.com and also through www.wyliewebsite.com.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Back Home on the Range
Jim Jones

I think Jim Jones must be the record holder...or would that be "CD holder?" He has released four albums in just over a year! Well, if ya got it in ya...

With three exceptions. this collection is basically Jim's nice acoustic version of That One I've talked about—the album of repeatedly requested classics that artists seem to do well to have available for their fan bases: "Home On The Range," "Cattle Call," "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," "Back In The Saddle," "Colorado Trail" "Ragtime Cowboy Joe"...you know the group. Also present are solid takes of "Waltz Across Texas" and "Stay All Night." And there are three originals at the end of the eleven-song offering.

Jim's "Freedom's Getting Harder To Find" is a tribute to our military, and a wonderfully creative new song co-written by Jim with Bruce Huntington (formerly with Trails & Rails) called "Wyatt's Lament" deserves to be picked up by other artists The final song I'll refrain from commenting on, except to say Jim and I co-wrote it. t's called "Light (Tribute To Wilson Hurley)." Obviously I'm going to be pretty partial to it, but I'll let you review that one when you hear it!

CD: $15 plus $3 s/h from Jim Jones, PO Box 2264, Corrales, NM 87048; www.jimjonesmusic.com or $12.97 through cdbaby.com (search Jim Jones) and $9.99 for MP3 downloads.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Cowboy II
Lynn Anderson

There's no stepchild feel to this sequel from Lynn Anderson! Cowgirl II is every bit as exciting as its award-winning 2006 predecessor, and various guest appearances this time around take things just that much higher.

Actor Barry Corbin was a perfect choice to provide a commanding Ben Johnson-style trail boss voice in the rich saga song "Turn The Herd," Arizona's Rollie Stevens brings a distinctly Marty Robbins feel (appropriately) to "Mexican Angel," and no one familiar with Belinda Gail's situation of the past couple of years could miss the special poignancy of her duet with Lynn on mom Liz Anderson's "The Loan." Classic songs covered include the hit Liz gave Lynn (and Brenda Lee also recorded) "Ride Ride Ride," a fine take of Poco's "Rose Of Cimarron" and a southwest regional favorite "Bandita," penned by her fella Mentor Williams with fellow Taos singer/songwriter Michael Hearne.

Few performers before or since Lynn Anderson have understood better than she the true art of owning a song. Once again in "Cowgirl II" she proves that. Whether she's doing a classic or a new song, when she plies her powerful chords to the task, you know she means every word! Superb!

CD: www.cdbaby.com/cd/lynnanderson; www.lynnandersonshow.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

He Rides the Wild Horses
J.C. Needham

Anyone with a good working acquaintance of our music should recognize the title tune here as being one of Chris Ledoux's earlier works, back from when he was our little secret!

Utah's J. C. Needham has chosen an interesting group of tunes for his premiere CD. Some Brenn Hill ("Burnin' Hair"), Dave Stamey ("The Circle" and "The Bandit Joaquin"), a dash of Charlie Daniels ("Caballo Diablo"), some contemporary classics (Michael Burton's "Night Rider's Lament") and one classic classic (Curley Fletcher's "Strawberry Roan"). Needham delivers them and others on the ten- song CD convincingly, accompanied by his guitar and acoustic bass provided by Chris Toohey.

I can tell Needham is blessed with a very good, expressive baritone and a delivery that could have stood on its own. I say "I can tell" and "could have stood" because of what I consider to be an unfortunate production decision on this album. Someone opted to apply a prominent electronic bounceback on Needham's voice tracks that doesn't enhance him. But I'm going to encourage you to take the plunge, or at least check into the MP3 download offer. I believe you will agree that here is the debut of a worthy and potentially important artist in Western Music...one that would be well served on future releases with a more simple and direct presentation.

CD: $14.99 plus $2.97 s/h from Western Star Unlimited, c/o J. C. Needham, PO Box 108, South Rim, UT 84071. Online sources include www.cdbaby.com/jcneedham and MP3 downloads from the same source are $9.99.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Poems of the Trail
Steve Deming

Welcome the new CD from the Bard-in-Residence with the popular California cowboy band called...well, "The California Cowboy Band!!"

Despite this album's name, it's not so much about romancing the driving of the dogies and the smell of scorchin' hide. The trail of this title is the trail of life. Often as not Steve Deming will concern himself with how he or someone else feels in a given situation, or with small, meaningful moments in scenes from along that grander trail. Through craftsmanship, his listeners generally find themselves to be the richer for it.

From deeply personal reflections such as "The Santa Ynez Trilogy," dedicated to his wife, to observations found in introspective pieces such as "To Sons Of A Trailrider," "Empty Saddles" or "Harper's Knife," he'll usually make you think...and feel.

Three of these works ("The Bell," "The Bucket," and "The Box") are also found on the California Cowboy Band's recent CD Ridin' Catalina Again. Don't be surprised if those tracks pop forward a bit in presence! I suspect there was some home mastering going on. If the cover looks familiar, you may remember the campfire scene being "emblazened" (pun intended) on T-shirts sported by the Western Music Association's California chapter! The image came from Deming's personal collection.

CD: $10 if you call Steve Deming to order at (310) 516-2363 it will be mailed at no charge! His site is www.stevedemingpoet.com.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Dancing Shadows, Mustangs & Dreams
Sam Mattise and Michael Luque

Personal cowboying observations and experiences from Cowboy Poet Sam Mattise accompanied by Michael Luque's appropriately vivid "put you in the scene" photography are what this self-published collection offers you.

At times Mattise's poetry has a spontaneous feel that seems to reflect no burning desire to ride the rigid line of conventional verse construction. But the "roughstock reality" in it is palpable. One of the collection's best is the book's opener, "Shadows In Time," a saga of an otherworldly encounter worthy of Rod Serling. In "Switched," Mattise recounts going for a bronc and getting a bull, letting him eat words and dirt. And you might not want to read "Ridin' A Red Horse" over dinner, or you might start spewing food (even if it's just from laughing)! All the while Michael Luque's illustrative photos on opposing pages help guide you on the ride.

I encountered a typo or two that might cause momentary confusion due to their placement ("now" for "know" at the end of a rhyming line is one), but cowboy up! You'll get through it alright!

Book (softcover) - $14.95 plus $3 s/h (add 6% within Idaho) from Bear IT Design & Photography, 208 Winged Foot Pl., Eagle, ID 83616 and get more info about the book at www.bearitdesign.com.

© 2009, Rick Huff
price updated 2/2/10

Cowboy State of Mind
Jennifer Lind

From the first chords of the first track, I suspected this one would be a superior CD. When Jennifer Lind began to sing, I knew it for certain.

I was also helped to arrive at that conclusion by the quality of the opening song. The CD's title track, "Cowboy State Of Mind," using the C-word as an adjective, asserts the nobility of the Cowboy Way and is one of the better explorations of its "do unto others" aspect I've yet come across. In her presentation, Lind is professional in every sense and has the makings to be an A-lister in most any style of melodic music she'd care to pursue. On her vocally projected notes, there's an occasional touch of Lynn Anderson about her, but in her intimate stylings she proves she's certainly no copy.

All but one of the eighteen songs were quietly penned by a camera-shy (and therefore in the CD's first run uncredited) Randy Sparks, founder of the New Christy Minstrels. The exception is "Old Cowboy," from Lind's co-producer Jason Barney. There are introspective Western tunes such as "Nightsong," "Cowboy Lullaby," "Lovesong To The Moon," and a railroader and Cowboy track "Counting The Cars." There's also a heapin' helping of ballads and some up-tracks as well. The production values are top notch, making this one definitely an album to get from a talent to watch!

CD: $20 ppd through www.jenniferlind.net and through iTunes at $11.99 per CD download.

© 2009, Rick Huff

The Trail to Miranda Park
Dale Page

Cowboy Poet Dale E. Page delivers his thoughtful verse well, he pays more attention to meter than many do and he'll opt for more involved construction. Those points alone set this one apart! Of course the fact that five of the verses were inspired by parts of New Mexico didn't hurt it in my estimation either!

Page covers some territory trod by others, such as the cowcamp prankster ("Bronc To Breakfast"), the heroic underestimated cowhand ("In Memory of Shorty O'Hare") and the award-winning wreck ("Cyclone In The Pines"). But he gives them his own colorations, and among the poems are some that struck me solidly. "Jenny's Colt" is one of the most moving portraits of Man, Horse and the inevitable I've ever encountered. "The Bear Facts" sent a shot of ice down my spine, partly due to Page's rendering of it. And "Once We Were Kings" is as virile a cowboying memory as you'll find anywhere.

The particular music bridges between the works are a little unorthodox, but they're still effective. Look into this one. Dale Page is one of the genre's craftsmen. I think you'll like what he's built.

CD: $18 ppd from Dale E. Page, PO Box 268, Monrovia, IN 46157; find more here at CowboyPoetry.com.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Goin' My Way?
Gary McMahan

Few people can rightly be called true pillars on whose foundations were constructed both the rise to prominence of Cowboy Poetry and the resurgence of Western Music, Gary McMahan, however, is such a pillar!

No one familiar with the above genres would fail to catch the impact of the statement "Gary McMahan has issued a new studio album!" It's his first since 1992. Few Western songwriters' works have been covered by other artists more often, or more reverently, than those of McMahan. Creations such as "The Ol' Double Diamond," "Dena Rose," "Ol' Cowpoke" "That's How The Yodel Was Born" and (from this CD) "Big Enough and The Cheyenne Mare" are the stuff of Cowboy Music legend. But make no mistake...more will come from this new album.

"Uncle Fred" (written with cowboy & singer Jeff Nourse about his uncle) is filled with New Mexico cowboyin' truth, the Elvira-like "Okeechobee Joe" honors the gritty Florida cowhunters and stretches Gary's Bob Frank or Dallas Frazer muscles. There's novel yodelin' and a rowdy "hidden" 35-year-old track from his Nashville days. Poetically, the hilarious "Chaps" gives Ralph Lauren a pronunciation lesson, "Goodbye" pays sweet tribute to Gary's dad, to Sunny Hancock and other inspirations of his who have passed on. Eleven tracks total.

Goin' My Way? bears the stamp of Gary McMahan all the way. In other words, fun, thoughtful, distinctive and true.

CD: $15 ppd through www.cdbaby.com; www.singingcowboy.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Round Up Ready
Barbara Nelson

Barbara Nelson's standard presentation of her swinging songs is done with a straightforward, jazzy guitar. This time she's added a friend on a second guitar!

Nelson's smooth Jo Stafford/Rosemary Clooney-type vocal stylings are intact here and finely honed as ever. She hails from Pendleton, Oregon, a long haul north from the Time Jumpers in Tennessee and the swing groups in Texas. I bring that up because I've got to say I'd love to hear her sit in with a bigger swing outfit. True, part of her act is the scope of the sound she gets from just herself and her electric guitar. Still, 'gotta say I'm ready to hear more.

What's here is very good, as always. Pick tracks among the fifteen include a slower bluesy take of "Cow Cow Boogie," a Western loping "Accentuate The Positive," "Ol' Buttermilk Sky," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" and a novel slow version of "I Walk The Line." Ok, you California and Oregon swing groups...invite Barbara for a recorded sit-in! I bet we'll all be the richer for it...

CDs: $12.99 ppd from Barbara Nelson, 72521 Tutuilla Creek Road, Pendleton, OR 97801 or through www.barbaranelsonmusic.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Ridin' Back To You
The Stardust Cowboys

When The Stardust Cowboys' lead vocalists Gary & Vicki Campbell harmonize they remind me a bit of Jack Blanchard & Misti Morgan (the "Tennessee Birdwalk" duo of old), but when the full harmony of the group joins in, there any similarity stops.

These folks have had a quarter century to get it right, and they seem to have made darn good use of their time! Most of the 11 tracks are nice original songs done with a mix of fleshed-out acoustic, twin fiddle and country steel instrumentation. I love the vintage Color Comics look of the cover, and the phrase on the CD's back "Dynagroove Living Stereo" brought a grin of recognition! This one should please most Country & Western fans and dancers definitely should plan to hit the floor.

Pick tracks are the tribute song "B-Western," the modern hoedown "She Loves To Dance," a swinger "Beaver Moon" and the title track "Ridin' Back To You," a sweet Western love song. This is another group that proves how good and how nicely diverse our Western Music genre has become!

CDs: $20 ppd through www.stardustcowboys.com or from Stardust Cowboys, 20009 Redwood Court, Foresthill, CA 95631

© 2009, Rick Huff

A Century Too Late and Daydream
Greg Hager

Greg Hager seems to take it seriously, judging from his website. He books many gigs and judging from these albums he has the chops to back it up when he gets there.

Arriving in one package were Hager's two releases...the Cowboy one and the Country one. The newly released Western CD is A Century Too Late and contains all original songs. Some of his Western perspective is Country's "cowboy" but when he's riding Cowboy country, he's got some great things to say. His stylings are rather like the transitional 1980s Country arrangements that predated the growling rock of Hot Country but still prominently featured drum backbeats and steel guitar. Pick tracks are "Shine" (tribute to Chris LeDoux & Kyle Evans, and I hope not too many say "who?" about the second fellow), "The Hoss" (grumpily equating the cowboy to a work hoss for his city dude boss) and "True Cowboy Love" (about...aw, you know)! I'd have singled out his "Cattle Call" (it's not Eddy Arnold's) except for one lyric requiring the dreaded pronunciation "doggies" to rhyme with "groggy."

Daydream is a pleasant Country CD that also contains some folk styling, gentle folk rock ballads, object lessons and of course that group of subjects all Country albums must contain. Again all are danceable tracks. Again he mostly avoids the obnoxious fuzz guitar of current pop Country. One of his creations, "A Man's Man," I kinda wish was on his more Western CD! He does what he does well and the songs have what I'd call commercial sensibilities. Translated, he's aiming at airplay and he's good enough to earn it.

CDs: $15 each or two for $25 ppd through www.greghager.com or from Greg Hager, PO Box 773, Valley City, ND 58072

© 2009, Rick Huff

Songs for the Cowboys
Richard Sharp

Before I heard Note One I figured this one would be worth it just by the presence of certain people Richard Sharp brought on board. They include Byron Berline and Greg Burgess on fiddles and Jim Garling and Terry Scarberry on guitars. I saw seven more musicians were there to back up Mr. Sharp as he sings and handles the upright bass duties. Then I listened hard!

Richard Sharp is a baritone/bass whose B-Western style voice is richly suited to his material. He can really slap or soothe that big doghouse bass as needed, and the harmony work and arrangements here are nicely thought through. That's exactly what's needed to spark things up when a significant portion of your song choices are standards that have been done to smithereens. But I'll bet you'll take to his takes of "When Payday Rolls Around," "Riders In The Sky" (titled and done accurately, and that's very uncommon) and particularly Sharp's version of the other Stan Jones classic people too often butcher, "Cowpoke!" Then he's thrown in some goodies like Billy Joe Shaver's "Ride Me Down Easy," a less-often done Gene Autry/Frank Harford song "Sing Me A Song Of The Saddle," "Press Along To The Big Corral," Foy Willing's "Stampede" (with effects) and Carson Robison's "There's A Bridle Hangin' On The Wall."

Twelve tracks total. Simply and directly said, you're just about guaranteed to love it. Why not??!! It's a winner from stem to stern!

CDs: $15 plus $3 s/h from Richard Sharp, 925 NW 9th Street, Moore, OK 73160 or phone (405) 808-6271

© 2009, Rick Huff

Oklahoma 1955
Les Gilliam

His fans ordered up an album they could dance to, and since at least 1955, Les Gilliam has been in the business of giving people what they want...and more!

Western Swing was king, and the songs hailing from the cradle of it that Les has included here have been given great frisky arrangements. bviously everyone concerned enjoyed putting this one together. Many of Les' longtime players are at work here...top pros all the way. From the nice original title track "Oklahoma 1955" that sets the tone, they set to work swinging out a dream set for the folks that includes "My Window Faces The South," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," "Heart To Heart Talk," "I'm An Old Cowhand," "Lily Dale," Ida Red" and more...twelve total. Just a super collection!!

There's an extra treat on the cover of this CD. Bring your magnifying glass for a photo of college-aged "Les Gilliam and his Western Rhythm Kings" from Oklahoma in 1955...shrunk down to near postage stamp size! 'Guess he didn't wanta share all his secrets!!

CD: $17 ppd from Les Gillam, PO Box 350, Ponca City, OK 74602 or call (580) 762-4837; www.lesgilliam.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Desert Moon
Charles Woller and Deborah Liv Johnson

Only the title appears on the cover and spine and you have to search in the notes for those responsible! So what kind of "bid for fame" could this be??

In mid-summer 2009 Joe Baker's monthly Backforty Roundup CD arrived as always with its usual assortment of songs from various CDs. On this one were two songs Joe had called my attention to strongly impressed me in their smoothness and beauty of production. The songs were the harmonically gorgeous "Desert Moon" and an outlaw ballad "Cold Blue Steel" voiced by Deborah Liv Johnson and written by one Charles "Chuck" Woller! I figured that had to be some sort of pen name nod to "chuckawalla." Anyway I asked Joe to have the CD's originator send the full one along for review. It turned out to be a presentation of five Western songs from Mr. Woller (surprisingly a first-time songwriter), with superb people having been assembled to perform them. The remaining three are "In The Night, Far Away," "Lonesome As The Prairie" and "Silver Lining Mountain." The songs definitely deserve the time and energy that obviously was spent on them. Bravos to Woller and co-producer/musician Dave Blackburn and vocalist Johnson with fellow players Dennis Caplinger, Barnaby Finch and Rick Schmidt.

People writing in to CDbaby are loving this one, and it is a wonderful emissary to new audiences on behalf of our Western Music genre!

CDs: $5 (no that's not a misprint!) ppd through CDbaby at www.cdbaby.com/cd/deborahlivjohnson

© 2009, Rick Huff

The Prairie Rose Rangers
The Prairie Rose Rangers

I've been curious to hear the group that entertains these days at the Prairie Rose Chuckwagon. And here they are in their premiere CD!

For history buffs the group that was The Prairie Rose Wranglers became the Diamond W Wranglers, the group at the Prairie Rose became The Prairie Rose Rangers and one of the original Wranglers (Orin Friesen) is now in the Rangers! Don't try that without a scorecard...degree of difficulty in repeating it is an 8! Orin Friesen (bass, vocals) is also now the Operations Manager at the Prairie Rose, where this group entertains.

Their sound (at least in the mix on this album) is less flashy than some of the Chuckwagon groups, leaning more toward the homespun and rustic. The songs on which Kim Coslett (vocals, guitar, piano) handles the lead are among the collection's best: "Desperado," "West Texas Wind," and "Thank Heavens For Dale Evans"...the latter two having come from the very first CD from the very first Dixie Chicks! There's a nice guest appearance from Rex Allen, Jr. singing his dad's famous "Arizona Waltz" (written at age 14, by the way)! Other band members include vocalist Kris Johnson, Jolynn MacIntyre (fiddle, vocals) and Jesse Friesen who also produced, engineered and mastered the album. Twelve tracks in all.

CDs: $19 ppd through www.prairieroserangers.com or directly by check/m.o. from "Prairie Rose," 15231 SW Parallel St., Benton, KS 67017

© 2009, Rick Huff

Old Cowboys Never Die
Steven Spalding

Bringing a bit of a Waylon Jennings feeling to the table is Steven Spalding, minister and cowboy singer who cut himself loose from Nashville and never looked back.

Also being a multi-instrumentalist allows him the luxury of not having to pay session people on his recordings! Quite a bit of his material is charismatic in nature, but I get the feeling a couple of his songs on the CD could have been designed to be secular if performers choose to excise the final verse in each. The title tune is one of them, and "Back When The Cowboy Was King" is another. The secular poetry is mostly light humorous ruminations about the cowboy life and legacy...from the camp "Cookie" to the glories of "Binder Twine." And what would life...or fine cowboy dining...be without "Taters?!"

Steven Spalding is one of the artists who understands how to squeeze a generous application from YouTube, having (as of this writing) 19 videos there for the world and the immediately adjacent universe to see. Go check him out for yourself!

CDs: $15 (s/h varies, so call 417-532-6470) Website: www.circlesministries.org—and other CDs available include Sittin' Round The Campfire and A Cowboy Christmas Ball.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Songs of the Untamed West
Frank Fara

Frank Fara's name and his label Comstock Records will be familiar to many radio stations and Western music show hosts. Through his CD samplers he helped educate broadcasters who paid attention that artists from Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada and other areas of the world actually produced worthwhile Country and Western!!

In his own CD Fara is free to tread the historic west. It's obviously a labor of love written as history lessons, some from the perspective of those who might have been present. Original songs include "Charming Billy—Billy The Kid," "Isom Dart—A Black Cowboy," "The Daltons At Coffeyville" "The Saga of Diamondfield Jack," "Donner Pass" and five others. The production values are big and support Fara's rather rustic folk vocal stylings.

Listening I suspect there may be a certain nostalgia manifested in those who remember Western Music's earlier resurgence years. Fewer new songs seem to be written in this style nowadays, which isn't to say there's no longer a place for it.

CD: $15 ppd ($18 outside the US) from Comstock Records, PO Box 19720, Fountain Hills, AZ 85269. Also available through www.cdbaby.com/cd/frankfara2 and digital downloads are offered at Apple I Tunes and Amazon.com (search by "Frank Fara").

© 2009, Rick Huff

Top Seller!!!
Pat Richardson

Stand up and cheer...and then fall down laughing. Your favorite irascible, cantankerous, dry as desert dust and thoroughly hilarious genius Cowboy Poet curmudgeon (ok, maybe he's the only one in existence) has let somebody video him doing a pack of your favorites. Or maybe somebody just did it!

You'll watch this one again and again, guaranteed. After all, the majority of the verses and stories here are ones people already request again and again. In residence are "Queen of North Dakota," "Pony Eggs," "The Donner Party" and a bunch more along with his standard stunningly wacky observations that invariably leave his audiences howling with laughter. Part of the joy of a Richardson performance is the calmness of the zings and that sudden insanity of truth you're presented from the outer reaches of that brilliant comic mind. It's made him one of the most sought-after entertainers on the circuit, and now this DVD performance can attest to everyone why that's so. Now the living legend Pat Richardson can be seen on your screen. Talk about a screen "savor!"

DVD: $20 ppd from Pat Richardson, 562 Breeze Avenue, Merced, CA 95348. Website: www.PoetPatRichardson.com or for bookings his email is westpoems@aol.com or phone (209) 722-4612.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Sky Settles Everything; the Wayne James Story
Verlena Orr

The star of this feature length DVD tribute is The Cowboy Lifestyle! Here you will meet it intimately through a man who would live no other way. You'll either totally get the lifestyle's appeal and deeply long for its stark and rugged freedom, or you'll wonder why in this blue world somebody would ever choose it! Guess it all depends on your definition of "creature comforts."

In capturing Wayne James' life on the Idaho ranch and range onto which he was born, his first cousin (Oregon Cowboy Poet Verlena Orr) takes us through many parts and many memories of their growing up years. She also offers her poignant original poetic insights and impressions of the place, the work and the challenges of standing tough. Her rather orated style of delivery stands somewhat in counterpoint to the more languid visuals, but no more than do the songs in the music track from contemporary recording artist Rick Bartow, which serve to remind me of an ever-encroaching 'civilization' somewhere over the hill.

That having been said, in her filmic style first-time director Debbra Palmer manages to observe without intruding. There's a sense of being there that almost has you feeling the breeze. As the cowboy panorama of tasks, tradition and spirit gently unfolds, the attuned viewer likely will have taken up residence there. But it's wise and fortunate to have captured, for all to experience, one more example of a West that admittedly may be slipping away from us forever, bit by computer-driven bit.

DVDs: $11.75 ppd from The Sky Settles Everything Productions, LLC. c/o Verlena Rae Orr, 1907 NW Hoyt Street, Portland, OR.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Red Rock Rondo
Phillip Bimstein

Here's one of the Western Folklife Center's enviably grant-funded excursions into exploring the life, legend, music and contributing influences of the folk of a given area. This time the focus is a bit closer to home than some have been, dealing as it does with the people and history at the foot of Zion National Park's glorious red rock cliffs.

The framework on which the made for PBS special is built is an original song cycle by area resident and composer Phillip Bimstein. He performs and assists with orienting viewers to the tempo and life about which he writes and his friends in the piece sing. We meet people who inspired the songs as they drop by and sit in for the performances. The fleshed-out folk song cycle was commissioned by the American Composers Forum and is a signature project of Zion National Park's 2009 Centennial. The songs are performed expertly by an ensemble made up of composer Bimstein (vocals, guitar); the illustrious Founding Director of the Western Folklife Center Hal Cannon (vocals, mandolin, mandocello, banjo, harmonica, jaw harp); Kate MacLeod (vocals, violin, guitar); Flavia Cervino-Wood (violin); Harold Carr (upright bass, spoken word) and Charlotte Bell (oboe, English horn). There is a sixteen-song studio-produced CD version available as well.

There are juicy jaw-dropping views of the ruddy and rugged terrain as the performances move about the area. We're let in, we meet congenial people and hear about the influences and inspirations of the song cycle. And yet, in a curious way, we're also held a bit at arm's length...as if we're observing the nods and knowing winks of a secret shared among others. In the final analysis, that might actually convey the tradition of the Red Rock residents the most effectively of all.

DVDs: $20 through www.westernfolklife.org or call (775) 738-7508 and CDs $16.99. CDs by mail: $18 plus $3 s/h from Red Rock Rondo, 983 Lincoln Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84105.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Western Swing and Western Bling
Stephanie Davis

A pair of albums arrived from the hallowed voice of Stephanie Davis. On these discs she has all but set aside her hallowed pen, though. Temporarily, the Western World hopes! 'Til then fans can amuse themselves with these fine companion CDs.

Here you have the Cowboy Swing disc or the Western Swing disc! And you really can tell the difference. The albums' illustrious producer Rich O'Brien writes "Stephanie Davis is one of Western Music's mega talents." She's working with a number of others here. On "Bliss" there's Mr. O'Brien of course along with Clint Strong (guitars), Cindy Cashdollar (steel), Reggie Reuffer and Dale Morris, Jr. (fiddles) and over on "Bling" add Steve Story on fiddle, Ronnie Ellis (bass), Brent Dacus & Billy English (drums) and vocal support from Paul Daniels and James Hinkle with O'Brien, Ellis and Dacus!

It's pretty obvious everyone had a good time putting these cds together. "Bliss" is the album for Cowboy Swing. Here are elegant, danceable treatments of "Montana Cowgirl," "Hittin' The Trail Tonight," "Leanin' On The Old Top Rail" and nine others. The Davis original here is "Trail's End Theme Song" from her upcoming Western radio show!!

"Bling" is well-named. Some of the gems here get Western Swing mountings they may never have been set in before. "Nevertheless," the famous French pop classic "Beyond The Sea," "Soon," "If I Had You" and "The Best Things In Life Are Free" are examples. But the Western Swing connection is firmly affirmed with three Cindy Walkers ("Hubbin' It," "Baby That Sure Would Go Good" and "Goin' Away Party"), Milton Brown's "Talkin' 'Bout You," "I Didn't Realize" and "Slowpoke." Eleven tracks total.

CDs: www.stephaniedavis.net for information

© 2009, Rick Huff

Herdin' Cats
The Saddle Cats
In the form of new CDs I often get nice surprises through the mail. Sometimes it's a new discovery, and other times it's just simply Xmas. I knew what to expect when I found the Saddle Cats' new CD in one of the packages, but I still felt like hanging ornaments.

Just how effortless can brilliant musicians make jazzy Western Swing seem to be?? These guys will take you to smooth new heights of "effortless!!" The Saddle Cats' precision is breathtaking. Sly passages from other famous songs occasionally flit by in the arrangements bringing a smile. There's a mellow intimacy in the sound as top pros and legends work magic in a salute to the West Coast swing classics.

The full-time Cats and some of their credentials are Richard Chon (formerly with Sons Of The San Joaquin on fiddle and expressive vocals), Bobby Black (from Asleep At The Wheel, Commander Cody and others on steel), Gordon Clegg (guitar and vocal) and Bing Nathan (bass fiddle). Other folks pop by...David Bell (guitar); the legendary drummer on Bob Will's Tiffany Transcriptions, Johnny Cuviello joins in; and uber-guitarist Rich O'Brien is on "You Just Take Her." A couple of feisty double entendre swingers show up in Wills & Duncan's "What's The matter With The Mill?" (Billy LaBeef, harmony) and Williams & Green's "You've Got The Right Key But The Wrong Keyhole." "Oklahoma Stomp" comes intant with Spade Cooley's signature harp run thanks to Laura Porter. Thirteen tracks total. Herd Herdin' Cats into your collection. This pristine CD is as close to purr-fect as you'll find!

CDs: $15 plus $2 s/h by credit card through the www.saddlecats.com website. On the site an address is given for mail orders, but we are advised at present the CD is only available for online orders. For updates on this, email rchon@comcast.net

© 2009, Rick Huff

Life Love Legends
Carin Mari and the Pony Express
A group that has been acclaimed as one of Western Music's brightest hopes has made that "hope" arrive with this release. In Life - Love - Legends, Carin Mari & Pony Express has produced a mature vision and a thought out product. It shows their range and their ability to handle their own A & R work...knowing and selecting what will work well for their act to perform.

The group is made up of Lechner siblings Carin Mari (acoustic guitar & lead vocals), Colin (CD producer/engineer on mandolin, harmony and one lead vocal) and Evan (upright bass and harmony vocals) with papa Lee on harmonica. Not as many of the songs on this album are Carin Mari originals, but the ones that are really count. "Fire & Rain," "Pretty Nights," and her NACMAI Songwriter Of The Year award winning "Always A Road (Sarah's Song)" may very well be picked up by other artists. Compositions from others include a couple from Ian Tyson ("Someday Soon" and his and Blaine McIntyre's "Juaquima To Freno") and a couple from Dave Stamey ("McGee Creek" and "The Bandit Joaquin"). Johnny Kendrick's beautiful "Echoes Of The Trail" made the grade and they included a track originated by the Canadian female group Quartet, "Cowboys & Rodeos." Thirteen tracks total.

In their arrangements I would like to hear them utilize the mandolin a bit more often in a rhythm guitar role, but that's just my thought on it. I'm confident in saying you'll think very highly of this one.

CDs: $17 ppd from Pony Express, PO Box 4146, Buena Vista, CO 81211; www.carinmarimusic.com
© 2009, Rick Huff

A Tougher Horse
Geff Dawson

Cowboy poet Geff Dawson gives his hungry fans a tasty feed bag to strap on with this one! Working cowboy reflections and novelty pieces with most being set to effective music.

One Good Horse is a collaboration between Dawson and performer/writer Gary S. Pratt, and the song of Pratt's "Cowboy Dream" features a related poem written and performed by Dawson. It's a good teaming. A major load of inside humor is found in "Branson Missouri Blues"...part of which could've been enough to get him not invited back had he not redeemed himself in the last verse!! Other picks among the originals here include "Ghost Cowboy" (an good campfire legend in verse), "I Hear The Trailer Comin'" (a Johnny Cash parody), "Daddy Told Me" (not to cuss the rain), and "The Day Would Come" (the old cowboy hangs it up). There's an adapted version of Chris LeDoux's "John Ed Sang Cowpoke" as "Johnny Western Sang Cowpoke" with poet Trey Allen delivering verse in it.

I'm not sure about the decision to use a canned studio audience sound effect on "Rindercella" but it's not a deal breaker in the pen (apologies to Joel Nelson for that one...)!!

CDs: $17 postpaid from Geff Dawson, 2 Bar D Ranch, 33691 K99 Hwy., Alma, KS 66402; www.ranchcowboy.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Shalako
Joe Herrington

His voice is authentic, disarming and kinda located down the Slim Pickins trail. But the pickins in Joe Herrington's poetic content are anything but slim! And you won't find any better meld of Cowboy Poetry to musical backup than you will on this little beauty from Herrington & company!

The album shows off very effective guitar accompaniment from Howard Yearwood, vocal backup from Ronda Herrington, Zephyr Lorraine Spear and Skeeter Mann and unique percussion elements by Ray and Ben Herrington. But it's the words and Joe Herrington's presentation of them that provide the real momentum here. The soft but commanding Herrington delivery sends these good words straight into you. Concerning "Shalako" itself, I can't recall a better rendering of a big west gunfighter verse since Lorne Greene gave us "Ringo" back in ' 64. A number of Herrington's poems on the CD deal with the general theme of someone going unappreciated until its too late, but each has a point to make.

It must be Kiskaddon season as the second version of his "Broncho Twister's Prayer" in as many months showed up on this album! It's credited as being from the 1800s. Actually its birthdate would be between 1924 and 1947 according to expert Bill Siems. "Drinkin' From My Saucer" (cited here as "author unknown") is all over the internet as dating from 1970 and being by John Paul Moore. Other pick tracks include "Dillon" (a good sucker bet payoff piece), "Shoulda Done It" (a heart tugging life lesson and the best of the "gone unappreciated" poems), "Rooster" (a miracle of personnel management), "Night Hawk" (a narrated and sung creation with Skeeter Mann) and "The Wounded Post" (how a kid fends off getting a fist in his too-open mouth). Thirteen tracks total. Superior stuff!

CDs: $18 ppd through www.joeherrington.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Echoes of the West
Del Shields

Three elements present in Del Shields' third Western music release are particularly noteworthy. First, the solid arrangements from producer Jim (Diamond W Wranglers) Farrell; second, the correct or original versions of often-mishandled songs with defendable new takes on others, and finally, the simple fact that it's Del Shields doing them!

This album is Shields' collection of "those obligatory Western songs" for his fans. Due to the pressure of requests for them, most artists will eventually issue one so it gets covered. Picks here include "Cattle Call," "Wayward Wind," "Blue Shadows On The Trail," "Ridin' Down The Canyon" and the legendary Johnny Western guests on his friend Stan Jones' "Cowpoke" with Shields.

There are a couple of songs here that haven't been done quite as often. They are Gene Autry's "Way Out West In Texas" and "Caballo Diablo. Someone in the midwestern printing department apparently wasn't familiar with the Spanish word "Caballo" making it "Cabrillo" on the jacket instead, but it's still the Charlie Daniels song you'll recognize. And of course you'll recognize that any Del Shields release will likely be worth your time and trouble!

(CD info not furnished, but order by calling (620) 433-1819 and an online store is coming soon to www.delshields.com)

© 2009, Rick Huff

Rhythms of a Westerner
Jasper McCoy

This congenial little album was two years in the making! If that sounds like it must employ a cast of thousands, you're forgetting this is Western we're talkin' about. Sometimes y' have to wait for the musicians you want on your tracks to ride through town!

We first encountered Jasper McCoy and his kerchief-wearin' "railroad dog" Buck aboard the Santa Fe Railway as he/they entertained the passengers strolling car to car. The mix on his first album typifies the eclectic blend of Western and Country he always used there. Jasper has the square-jawed look of a B-Western hero and his crooning baritone only adds to that effect. The presence of pedal steel guitar (Eric Seeman) and fiddle (Ollie O'Shea) along with Pete Amahl (drums) help add some of the Country effect as well.

Western standards are here, including "Cowboy's Lament (Streets Of Laredo)," "Cool Water" and "Don't Fence Me In" (the latter done here as an unusual heartfelt plea). The rare Riders Of The Purple Sage song "Everything's Goin' My Way" is an interesting addition along with the hit for Red Foley and Little Jimmy Dickens "Hillbilly Fever," the Lee Ross/Bob Wills swinger "My Shoes Keep Walkin' Back To You" and Wills' "San Antonio Rose" are also among the rhythms of this Westerner. Twelve songs in all, and Jasper also has an original called "The Tennessee Walker Walks On" describing the horses and riders at the stable where he helps out.

Buck The Railroad Dog didn't quite make it to see the release of his buddy's first CD, but something tells me his ear is cocked and his tail's tapping in rhythm up there somewhere.

CDs: $15 plus $3 s/h direct from Jasper McCoy, PO Box 15, Cerrillos, NM 87010 or phone (505) 710-6134

© 2009, Rick Huff

Lucky Seven
The Desperadoes

Spanning thirty years in the Western Swing and Honky Tonk music makin' business isn't a feat accomplished by every group. There's something to be said for the staying power and continuing popularity of a band like The Desperados. This is their "lucky seventh" album released in that time.

These boys are legends across a wide dancing swath of Texas, New Mexico and clear up into Washington State! Honors have come from The Cowtown Society Of Western Music, the Sacramento Western Swing Society and the Northwest (formerly Seatlle) Western Swing Music Society among others. A majority of fans believe The Desperados just have to be from Texas. Try Mesilla Park, New Mexico!!!

The authentic roadhouse treatment they give their versions of songs like "Near You," "Lilly Dale," "The Last Word In Lonesome Is Me," "My Adobe Hacienda" and even "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and the Johnny Ray hit "Cry" can almost make you feel the hootch hall chickenwire mesh on your flesh and smell the stale beer!

In his liner notes, bandleader and co-founder Ted Scanlon points out the CD title "Lucky Seven" has nothing at all to do with the notorious border brothel that sports the same name. Likely he knew part of his crew would hope it did!!!

CDs: $15 ppd through www.backfortybunkhouse.com and the set of their seven CDs (yep, all still in print) is $70 ppd.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Riding Catalina Again
California Cowboy Band

These guys have been together for about a decade and a half, and the blend and intuition of it definitely shows in their finished product. Most of the arrangements lean toward the Country style with steel guitar and a pronounced backbeat drum, although there are elements of jazz, blues and even some "rinky tink' here too. And yes, some of it rocks, but wow! Everything they do is done so well!! If you can handle Wylie & The Wild West's rockier output, know you won't have to extend even that far with the California Cowboy Band.

There's a strong sense that they are rounded entertainers Along with the varying musical influences there's some good cowboy poetry from Steve Deming as well. "Riding Catalina Again" kicks off with a great cover of Rusty Richards' "Fence Rider." Then they proceed to unveil a string of truly fine original and novelty Western songs. I defy you to get the infectious songs "Cowboy Jazz" and "Cowboy Blue" out of your head!! Or if they don't get you, then "Dying Breed," the title tune "Riding Catalina Again" or the rockier "The Higher The Horse The Harder The Ground" just might. The core of the group is a trio made up of Mel Harker (lead & harmony vocals & songwriting), Craig Ruppert (also lead & harmony vocals & songwriting) and Steve Deming (harmonica & poetry) and they are ably assisted by Teresa James (harmony), Herman Matthews (drums), Terry Wilson (bass & acoustic guitar), Billy Watts (guitars), Jon Regaldo (steel/mando/banjo) and Karen Hammack (piano). This album is top quality, all the way!

CDs: $20 ppd through www.cdbaby.com or from Steve Deming, 990 W 190th Street, Suite 100, Torrance, CA 90502, 310-871-6300; www.californiacowboyband.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

More Than Satisfied
Liz Talley

Now there's a good CD title! You can't help but wonder if the thinking was "reviewers can't resist the temptation to say 'you'll be more than satisfied with Liz Talley's CD!'" Well, they're right. We can't, and you will if your thing is Western Swing and that classic Country sound.

Liz Talley is a powerful singer who gives even the slow dances a heapin' helping of energy and crackle. Possibly not since Jeannie C. Riley has there appeared a female vocalist who is any more guaranteed to punch all the right excitement buttons. Plus she surrounds herself with those "deep Texas" style musicians who thoroughly get it, and they've created an album Swing and Country fans should definitely get.

Opening things up with Asleep At The Wheel's "Bump Bounce Boogie," Talley proceeds to pull from the pens of Leona Williams & Dave Kirby, Melba Montgomery, Lacy J. Dalton, Becky Hobbs and other high placed practitioners of the Honky Tonk arts gems like "Johnny Getting Out Of Jail Barbecue," "A Song I Can Cry To," "You Can't Take The Texas Out Of Me," ""One Man's Angel" and a six pack of others...including that title track! Yep, the title "More Than Satisfied" works on more than one level. Satisfied??

CDs: $15 through liztalleymusic.com, honkytonkin.com ($14.85 plus $4.50 s/h) and cdbaby.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Ride Away
Rich Flanders

I must confess I always watch with great interest for the follow up albums, the second releases, from artists who have impressed me either positively or negatively with their initial efforts. I was impressed very positively with his first album, but based on what I've just heard in Rich Flanders' second CD Ride Away, I'm ready to say he should definitely be considered to be one of Western Music's A-List performers all the way!!

What a treat you're in for this time! From the inspired mix of rare film music ("Man Without A Star," "The White Buffalo"...an early Alan Bergman song from, get this, an episode of Rin Tin Tin!), newer works (Joyce Woodson's "Call Of The Wild") and debuts (player & co-producer Ken DeAngelis's "My Shadow & The Moon" and "Thirteen Voices" with Amy Ober) to the thoughtful and well-executed arrangements, "Ride Away" is top notch. As the title suggests, Stan Jones' theme from "The Searchers" is here, too. Flanders also isn't afraid to veer off the rigidly Western trail a little when the occasion demands. All will appreciate that fact and be thankful for it when they hear his take of the Burl Ives release "Mah Lindy Lou" or the Newman/Webster theme from "How Green Was My Valley." Fourteen tracks. Rich Flanders' Ride Away is a brilliant album, and I mean the kind that could and should earn Classic status.

CDs: $16 through cdbaby.com/cd/richflanders or by mail $16 plus $2 s/h from Rich Flanders, 374 County Highway 48, Thompson Ridge, NY 10985; (845) 361-4726; www.richflanders.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

The State Songs: Volume One
Rick Pickren

Quite a while back I thought it would be interesting to see if an artist could do anything with our nation's official state songs. Now the wonderful balladeer Rick Pickren has taken me up on it!! Okay...he got the idea by himself, but I feel a kind of by-proxy ownership here!

Frankly it takes a performer with the creative resources of a Rick Pickren to pull this off. Rather than being some bound-for-the-library-annex historical recording, Pickren has breathed not only creativity, but real life and affection into even the most leaden relics! Keep in mind few artists would be faced with such a daunting task. More than one of the state songs came about due to an influential political figure, a wife or a friend deciding to put quill to parchment...and seldom would many of them have been performed since their debuts.

In his mission Pickren was helped out a bit. Some of the songs had been successful prior to becoming official. Among them are Louisiana's "You Are My Sunshine," Florida's "Old Folks At Home," Kansas' "Home On The Range," "Connecticut's "Yankee Doodle" and Kentucky's "My Old Kentucky Home." But Pickren's takes on each is inspired...particularly starting off Ohio's "Beautiful Ohio" as if it's on a Gramophone, then pulling to full fidelity. Rather than being just a gimmick, there's an added nostalgic sweetness to it. And he does Hawaii's "Hawaii Ponoi" on a ukulele and in the language. The additional songs on Volume One are those of Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia and Washington. Something tells me Oklahoma's state song may need to be on Volume Four...to "earn up" the Rodgers & Hammerstein royalties, ya know...

CDs: $12.99 or MP3 download for $9.99 through cdbaby.com/cd/pickren10

© 2009, Rick Huff

New & Used
Gadzukes!

Diligent credit watchers and liner note readers may recognize the group name "Gadzukes!" from an earlier release this year. If you're thinking they appeared on tracks from Nancy Thorwardson's newest CD, and you're suspecting Nancy may be present here as well...right on both counts!

To get the full novelty impact of the name of this ukelele & vocal jazz and Country Swing duo consisting of Nancy and Patrick Cullie, you need to pronounce it correctly. Phonetically it's "gadz - yukes"...the last syllable being short for...ah, you know! Nancy points out only three of the tracks on this highly enjoyable collection are truly Western. Her own often-done "Roundup Time On The Rio Grande," "Along The Navajo Trial" and Cindy Walker's "Sugar Moon" are here. "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" flirts with Western, and by the time you get to the rest of the sixteen tracks on the album, if you're still worried about it, I'll be worried about you! Other folks along for the fun include Bret Billings (pedal steel/harmonica), Billings and Greg Schochet (guitars), Bill Pontarelli (clarinet), Aaron Keim & Eric Thorin (bass), Chris Lee (drums and a harmonious sextet known collectively as "The Quarry Girls" (also from Nancy's February '09 release).

To justify this CD's inclusion here among the cowboy albums, I could throw the Hawaiian paniolo at you or claim that Houlihan and Hula Hands aren't that far apart, or mention Jack Thorp's very ukelele-like instrument he hauled across the west as he collected cowboy songs, but why argue??! Sit back, stop fussing, start listening and loving it! You absolutely will.

CDs: $15 ppd through www.cdbaby.com; www.nancythorwardson.com/IonaGibsonMusic/album.html

© 2009, Rick Huff

Pickin' Memories With Peggy Malone
Peggy Malone

She included Little Jimmie Dickens' "I'm Little But I'm Loud" for a reason. They say good things come in small packages. In the case of the Mighty Ms. Malone, a big voice surely does!

The distinctive stylings of Peggy Malone are unmistakable. She can range from the deeply heartfelt to bigger-than-life buckaroo gal and still anyone familiar with her will always know it's her. In this case that's a good thing! This new collection of songs from across the years features studio recordings, live tracks and "home" work too. There are originals, classics and contemporary and the genres include Western, Country and Folk as well. From the latter catalog comes her transfixing "Danny Boy" and the trilogy made up of "I Wish I Was In Dixie," "Battle Hymn Of The Republic" and "Hush Little Baby Don't You Cry." Among the classic Western content you'll find "Shenandoah," "I'd Like To Be In Texas For The Roundup In The Spring" with Jack DeWerff assisting, "Where The Ponies Come To Drink" (she correctly acknowledges the too-often uncredited Ed Stabler melody) and "Colorado Trail" among others. Naturally some of her own are trotted in..."Appaloosa," "His Name Was Buck" (Buck Blackshire also appears) and "Spring Storm" among them. Twenty-four tracks in all.

This collection is a nicely balanced visit with one of Western and the other genres' strongest voices. Something tells me...loudly...you'll take to it!!

CDs: $17.50 ppd from Peggy Malone, PO Box 482, Fruita, CO 81521

© 2009, Rick Huff

Ridin' Back To Yesterday
The Old West Trio

On their ride back to yesterday, this group still manages to take enough "today" with them to keep it jazzy, frisky and smile-makin' !!

The Old West Trio is made up of Steve ("SW") Johnson on vocals & lead guitar, Steve ("SK") Ide on vocals and rhythm guitar and Leslie (no intials they've confessed to) Ide on vocals and upright bass. They are augmented on various tracks by Thom Bentley (guitar/mandolin), Carl Finnegan (guitar), Jim Donnell (mandolin), Ronnie Elkan (fiddle) and Blackwood Tom Schmidt (clarinet). This latter artist's performance on the song "He's A Cowboy" is reminiscent of Larry McWhorter's work on R.W. Hampton's original "Travelin' Light." In fact much of the arranging and composing of the 14 original works here seem crafted to instill a comfortable familiar feel.

Picks include the title track about giving up city battles for boots and saddles, "Cowboy School" (on-the-job reining), "Coyote Serenade" (coyotes, three part harmony, you get it), "Dance Hall Annie" (with a different outcome from the bulk of the type) and "I Want To Live Out West" (obviously inspired by the famous Roy Rogers/Sons Of The Pioneers yodel treatment of "Texas Plains"). There is one song here ("Quick Nick") that some may find a tad indelicate, but lighten up! It's still fun!

A good test of Western Music prowess is taking themes that have been written to death and giving them a fresh spin. These folks manage it throughout for a very enjoyable ride.

CDs: $10 plus $2 s/h through www.oldwesttrio.com or from Old West Trio, 6281 Pikes Peak Circle, Garden Valley, CA 95633 Email info@oldwesttrio.com and phone (530) 642-2280

© 2009, Rick Huff

The Westerner
Sons of the Rio Grande

Here is the long, long...long awaited second album from one of the best groups working in three-part Western Harmony!

Sons Of The Rio Grande released their first CD, Spirit & Beauty Of The West, seven years ago! Then they took a three-year recording break and have been putting the new one together for four more!! But for The Sons' meticulous leader and arranger Walen Mickey (vocals/guitar/keyboards/whistle), it simply isn't a race to release.

The other Sons Of The Rio Grande are Rob Croft (vocals/fiddle/mandolin), Larry Ruebush (vocals) and Richard Twilley (bass).

This group's specialty is a kind of intricate vocal richness you wish you could wrap around yourself! Lead solo vocals almost become mere set-ups to deposit the listener lolling onto the warm plushness of the blend when it arrives.

"The Westerner" is one of Badger Clark's most challenging poems. Walen Mickey took on the additional challenge of setting the thing to music, and what a robust creation it is!! Other fine classic-styled originals include the moving "Stay In The Saddle" (inspired by the effort of completing their first CD), "The Steward," "Pride On The Prairie" and "For Life could become the Anniversary song for couples far and wide. Among their covers of standards are some that are less often heard, such as "Trees," "Poor Old Bill," "Lonely River," "I Outgrew The Wagon" and their spirited "God Bless America"/"God Bless The USA" medley is here as well.

You may want to add this Sons Of The Rio Grande CD to your stash for a special reason. It may be a long, long, long time before another one comes around!

CDs $15 plus $3 s/h to Sons Of The Rio Grande, 11822 Elvin Ave., NE, Albuquerque, NM 87112; www.sonsoftheriogrande.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Living the Dream
Neeta

Certainly one of the first things I was struck by in this cozy little album is the fact that "Neeta" can hit high notes that some vocal teachers will claim can't be handled by an admitted 62 year old vocalist. That aspect of her performance is particularly apparent on her "Cattle Call" and is utilized on "Tumbleweeds," the old Sylvia hit (what's with all the one-name wonders??)!!

Part of the effect achieved here is due to the musical support given by Flying D Wranglers Gary Cook (acoustic guitar/banjo/bass/harmony vocal) and Matt Palmer (fiddle) along with Neeta Mahaffey's daughter Codi Jameson and Linda Lee Filener (harmony vocals). It looks like a production nucleus is forming around Mr. Cook in Colorado, and that should bode well for future releases.

It's always nice to see I was right about something!! As I've predicted, Ken & Colleen Moore's "Spring Winds" indeed has now been covered by other artists, and it gets another nice outing here. Two originals with Neeta's music put to Kelly Oliver's words deal with Oliver's grandfather. "Disappointments" (about the sad irony of the hell that can be experienced ranching in the heaven that is Colorado) and "Ole Rancher" are obviously personal and heartfelt.

As I always feel I must, I offer miscrediting corrections. Here they would be on the cuts "Take Me Back To My Boots & Saddle" (singular, and written by Walter G. Samuels plus Leonard Whitcup & Teddy Powell) and "Wayward Wind" (curiously attributed to Neil Young [!] but instead should be Stanley Lebowsky & Herbert Newman).

CD: (amount and ordering info not furnished)

© 2009, Rick Huff

The Christmas Trail
Yampa Valley Boys

The rustic folk feel and frailing banjo style of the Yampa Valley Boys could bring an extra homespun element to your holidays this year!

Launching the collection with Don Edwards' melodic treatment of the Badger Clark title track poem sets the tone well. Songwise, Yampas Steve Jones (vocals/guitar) and John Fisher (vocals/banjo/resophonic guitar) with Steve Boynton (bass/shaker/dobro) have nicely side-stepped some of the usual players on such CDs and still kept the idea. Among those highpoints are the Suzy Boggus/Doug Crider novelty "Two Step Round The Christmas Tree," "Twelve Days Of Cowboy Christmas," a Steve Goodman song "Colorado Christmas" popularized by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Wendy Waldman & Carol Elliot's refreshing "Corn, Water & Wood" and the traditional song "Christmas Time's A' Comin.'"

There are enough of the requisite standards in attendance...several of them put into a convenient package by the Yampa Valley Boys as a medley. Ten tracks total. I'm thinking as the season approaches each year you'll likely like to haul out The Christmas Trail to frail your way into the wassail!!

CDs: $17 ppd from Yampa Valley Boys, PO Box 773611, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477; www.yampavalleyboys.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Beneath a Western Sky
Doris Daley

Undeniably Doris Daley is one of Cowboy Poetry's "A" Listers. In this, her third album, she offers a display of humorous and ironic verse on cowboy antics, life lessons and those prairie and ranch woes, and she acts as a tour guide through the recorded exhibits.

Here you'll find a confession or two that stand in defense of the Western touch along side the working hand. There's one on the real French Canadian Will James. Her popular piece "A Baxter Of Blacks" comically examines those terms for collections of critters (like a covey of quail or a brace of doves) and gallops further with a herd of proposed Western multiples!

Daley's songstress buddy Eli Barsi rides in with their collaborations "Riding Home To You" and the song based on Daley's "Rainbows" which is re-titled "Shades Of The West." And if there's room in Mr. Webster's dictionary, Daley's "What Is A Westerner" should be printed as that word's definition.

Doris Daley gives you thinkin' matter and grins. I say there's vitamins in that!

CDs: $15 US plus $3 s/h from Fiddle DD Enterprises, Box 103, Turner Valley, AB T0L 2A0; (403) 933-4434; ddaley@telusplanet.net; www.dorisdaley.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Cowboys Are Like That
Ken Cook

In his commanding style that tells the story first and the rhyme in proper time, Ken Cook presents an exceptional new CD.

Cowboys Are Like That is one of Cook's original poems, but the title very much presents the brogan for this collection to bed down in. His lines fit just fine with excerpts from Buck Ramsey's epic "Grass," or Badger Clark's "From Town," or Ralph Coole's "The Ranch Up Yonder." The crafted words from those noted poets and the increasingly sought after Mr. Cook masterfully illustrate how "cowboys are like that!" But like the very best of Cowboy Poetry will do, they extend beyond hoof, horn and saddle to embrace more universal themes and truths.

In an enclosed cover letter, Ken provided some insight into the extra effort he put into the creation and the rendering of this album. It shows. If he hadn't done so before now, with "Cowboys Are Like That" Ken Cook has cemented his place among the modern "A-listers" of the genre.

CDs: $15 ppd from Ken Cook, 23154 Teal Lane, Martin, SD 57551, (605) 685-6749; www.kencookcowboypoet.com.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Ranch Life 101
Sweethearts in Carhartts (Jean Prescott, Yvonne Hollenbeck, and Liz Masterson)

Three of the top performers in their respective styles of Western come together on one very nice CD. Billing themselves and the presentation for which this release is the soundtrack "Sweethearts In Carhartts," poet Yvonne Hollenbeck and songstresses Jean Prescott and Liz Masterson serve up a winning buffet for you to sample.

The songs included on Ranch Life 101 are mostly from earlier acclaimed releases of Prescott's and Masterson's. Thematically they pretty much offer the idealized picture of the life, with Hollenbeck's feisty verse seemingly providing the reality checks! When Prescott cheerily offers up "Road Of Dreams," Hollenbeck counters with "While You're At It!" Masterson's swinging "Little Green Valley" is followed by the humorously dour poem "I Don't Know." And I don't know what would follow-up Hollenbeck's "The Ranch Rig," but you'd probably not want to follow it too closely for health reasons!

The songs and the poems are great and present a nice package of the life and the tradition. The performances are always spot-on and you can tell their "Sweethearts In Carhartts" presentation would provide a fine evening's entertainment for the right event. If you elect to buy the album, be sure to order by its title Ranch Life 101 as the title Sweethearts In Carhartts is a different release of Jean Prescott's.

Due to the instant cross referencing of the Internet, I always feel obligated to correct errors in liner note crediting. One has been pointed out here...the poem from which one song "Ranch Mother" is drawn is attributed here to Badger Clark when it is actually one of S. Omar Barker's works.

Pick up "Ranch Life 101." Any time these ladies are there, you know class is in session!

CDs: $15 plus $3 s/h through Jean Prescott, PO Box 194, Ovalo, TX 79541 or call (325) 583-2553; www.jeanprescott.com.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Cross Halo
Paul Harris

Don't let the title song fool you. This isn't a gospel album. That's just the brand on the cattle of the ranch that supposedly waits for cowboys in the grand pasture beyond. Beyond that, Paul Harris' latest recorded effort takes a decidedly secular turn!

Western songs with a familiar Country type of construction but done without drums?? Surprise! It can work! Paul Harris is here to show us how it's done. Most of the songs are originals and there are two particularly noteworthy collaborations with singer/songwriter and cowboy Randy Huston ("Levis On Leather" and "It Took New Mexico"...the latter also done with Jess Gatlin). The lead song on the disc is the spirited "Kelly Green," one of the better Irish cowboy themed songs to show up in a spell. Other picks on the CD include "Autumn Reflections" about nearing those cowboy winter years which is ushered in by an appropriate poem entitled "Satisfied" and "Packin' Song" (itself set up with another Harris poem called "Apple Wreck")!

Give Paul Harris a try. Particularly if you are recently arrived in Western territory having departed from monotonous Country. Harris can help you move in without having to go cold turkey.

CDs: $18 ppd through PayPal at tmf1ph@yahoo.com; www.paulharriscowboymusic.com; www.myspace.com/tmf3ph

© 2009, Rick Huff

Classics II
Sourdough Slim

That struttin,' singin' modern day lift from a Vaudeville stage returns with the answer to his acclaimed CD "Classics!" Namely, his next to be acclaimed CD Classics II...and this one's loaded with classics, too!

You are guaranteed a good time and possibly some strange looks from passersby if you play Sourdough's music in your car good and loud. For here is one of Western Music's originals...heck, he's one of any kind of music's originals! If he'd been around when Republic and the Poverty Row Studios were huntin' for comical sidekicks for their celluloid heroes, he would have been all over the silver screens of the day. Now he'd have to settle for computer screens. At least it's a step up from sun screens.

To describe the CD one almost has only to list the superbly rendered instrumentation. On this album Sourdough Slim is on vocals, accordion, guitar, mouth trumpet, harmonica and ukelele. John Girton plays lead guitar, bass, tuba, chimes, French horn and provides backup vocals. Richard Chon provides his extraordinary violin artistry and Robert Armstrong is on banjo, musical saw, steel guitar and jug. 'Think ya got it?? Yet there's more! Sourdough's treatments are at once loving and free-wheeling, but when he turns on the charm...as he does on his version of "Twilight On The Trail"...the dude can really get to you.

Some of the classics are often found, such as "Ridin' Down The Canyon," "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" and others. Others a less often heard, such as "Silver On The Sage," "The Musket Came Down From The Door" and "Left My Gal In The Mountains." But "Classic II" should find a place in your collection, and put the 2007 release "Classics" there beside it, why dontcha??!!

CDs: $15 ppd (add $5 US for international orders) from Sourdough Slim, PO Box 2021, Paradise, CA 95967 and you can visit www.sourdoughslim.com for a look and a listen!

© 2009, Rick Huff

What's a Steer
Cade Schalla

Cade Schalla is a recently arrived voice on the scene of Cowboy Poetry and we certainly welcome him aboard.

This is an audio companion to the book of the same name by Schalla, an observer of the cowboy scene who obviously has seen what he writes about. Here Schalla introduces and performs a selection of poems from the book in a congenial, conversational style, without fanfare and production glitz.

Picks for me include "Nuts & Bolts" (if you are your mount will) "Cowboy School" (theory vs. hard knocks) and "From Can't Till Can't" (a cowboy's hours...dark at both ends). And every now and then, Schalla will use a turn of phrase that seems to indicate some strong poems-to-come may be lurking inside him. One example from his piece on the evils of skim milk: "...water's really all it is, if you look from where I sit...it gits strained through some old cow to get some white to stick to it!"

What's A Steer The CD is a worthy introduction to What's A Steer The Book, and may "steer" people to it. As for me, I'll be eager to see how Schalla handles other rhyme schemes and meters as he stretches himself poetically down the trail.

CDs: $10 (books are $20 and the book/CD combo can be had for $25) from Cade Schalla, 2493 Settlers Way, Sealy, TX 77474; www.cadeschallacowboypoetry.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Word Wranglin'
Gary Robertson

His fans who have clamored for its re-release will recognize this CD as the former cassette album that served as the illustrious Gary Robertson's premiere...now remastered in a format they can play!

Word Wranglin' contains a number of Robertson's most requested poems. His soft, one-to-one delivery draws his listeners into the picture and his verse paints those pictures clearly for them. Despite some contradictory sound effects on this early release (a constant daytime forest bird chorus with a crackling nighttime-feeling campfire...not to mention the indoor studio audience applause!) the poems are effective and move from humorous to historical to heartfelt. His range and sincere delivery have made him a draw at many of the most prominent Cowboy Poetry and music festivals.

In approaching this project, Robertson jokes that he thought it might be a hoot to re-issue Word Wranglin' as a cassette all over again but his wife failed to see the humor. I'll bet. (No word yet on how one punk rock group did who "died laughing" a while back over releasing a "78")...

CDs: Amount with shipping not furnished, but contact Gary Robertson, Greenfield Ranch, 1482 Hidden Valley Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91361 or (805) 390-2305; available from CDBaby.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Just In Case
Bill Barwick

He's the gruff, commanding basso of the lasso! Cowboy Music's answer to...what?...the lowest note on the piano, I guess! That's our buddy, the Voice of The Westerns Channel, Bill Barwick!

There's an odd scientific fact concerning Mr. B. Namely, it seems that to hear him is to love him. Among those who've heard him I've never found anybody who doesn't. His newest excursion into the Western Music arts will only bring him more eager fans.

And there are some interesting folks along for the ride. Frequent performing partner and autoharp meister Roz Brown joins in a duet with Bill on "Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine" and adds his silky strumming, Locke Hamilton of Prickly Pair joins in a second one...Bill's take of "The Ranch Sale," which she and hubby Les did on one of their own "PP" CDs so effectively.

On his own, Bill tells us about his buddy Justin Case who so often bails him out of scrapes due to whatever was brought along just in case. And he takes a great romp on the song "Bill Jones General Store." Other terrific tracks include "Cold Moon." "The Wrangler," "There's A Rodeo Behind Us" and "Crooked Nose Jack." Twelve tracks in all.

Bill Barwick's recordings are always worth the listen, and if you happen to have Bose speakers on your sound system, his bass voice can help vibrate stubborn paint off your walls for you!

CDs: $15 plus $3 s/h through www.billbarwick.com or by mail from Bill Barwick, PO Box 100852, Denver, CO 80250-0852

© 2009, Rick Huff

Campfire Cowboy—Back To The Fire
Fred Hargrove

Fred Hargrove returns with a new collection of songs and this time it's a mix of covers and originals. It also happens to be his best album to date!

Hargrove's performance of Ian Tyson's "Someday Soon" marks the second time I've heard the song adapted to be from the young rodeo cowboy's perspective, and done that way it kind of makes it feel like the girl's daddy is right about him ("I love them danged ol' rodeos as much as I love her!!") Other popular numbers covered well by Hargrove include "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys," "Cross My Heart," "King Of The Road," a super version of Jeffrey Bullock's "Ponies," "Night Rider's Lament" with the correct end verse "why do they ride for their money," Roy Robinson's modern standard "The Cowboy Song" and "Lonesome Rodeo Cowboy." Classics include "Strawberry Roan," "Red River Valley" and a version of "Utah Carroll" I can actually stomach!! (Sorry, friends, but that's one of about three Western songs that hit me wrong..."Darcy Farrow" being the other two!!)

Five Hargrove originals round out this balanced and well produced CD from one of Western Music's harder workin' artists. His fans will take to it immediately. Others should be immediately won over...well, pretty soon anyway!

CDs: $16 ppd from Fred Hargrove, PO Box 730, Monte Vista, CO 81144; (316) 617-9219; raisinghranch@aol.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Songs A Cowboy Might Sing
Charlie Camden

Of course a cowboy might sing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony...but you get the idea!

Charlie Camden is known very well for his contributions to further Western Music...particularly around his home base in Idaho. Perhaps fewer know him as a performer. If that's true, it's time they do! Here's Charlie with his Tom T. Hall/Waylon Jennings-edged baritone giving forth with just what his CD's title suggests. These indeed are songs that cowboys who don't limit themselves strictly to the Western genre might be prone to warble, and some of the Camden originals included here fit the bill as well.

There really is more to the title. As I settled in for this audio visit with Charlie, I began to understand these would be the cowboys' words if they had the words for it. Musically, there's flashier production and more intricate guitar riffs to be found on some CDs. But as for communicating the heart, the tradition, the spirit of the material...in short, the deeper intent of the words...Charlie Camden is one of the true masters. In that I would liken him to a Paul Harvey or an Edward R. Murrow. Songs A Cowboy Might Sing isn't just a 10-song album. It's a performance, and performances are less common than albums.

Some of the tracks include Red Steagall's "Born To Be A Cowboy," Steve Blanchard's "Riding For The Brand," "Always Wanting You" and "Diana" from Merle Haggard and four fine Camden songs and poems "Packing Out," "The Cowboy," the marvelous "Don't Let Me Be The One" and "Old Chest Of Memories."

For developing artists or those who've "arrived," there are interpretive lessons to be learned here. And the cost of this CD is certainly low tuition for the education.

CDs: $12 ppd from Charlie Camden, 609 Oak, Nezperce, ID 83543

© 2009, Rick Huff

Houston
River Road Boys

These "boys" know how to give the fans just what they're hungerin' for. No time has elapsed between now and the days of the Wills Brothers, Milton Brown and Adolph Hofnar!! Suddenly the microphones got better, that's all!

Step back...no, dance back (and forth for that matter) into another time with the sounds of one of the finer Western Swing organizations around. The River Road Boys' members can trace their roots and influences directly back into the end of those halcyon days. Under the steady producing and arranging hand of Clyde Brewer, they do their level best to keep it going...and their best just happens to be good enough to get you there.

My favorites here are the tunes they invoke their nice rather Mills Brothery harmony work on, such as on Larry Gatlin's famous straight out swinger "Houston," Ray Charles' "Talkin' 'Bout You" and Clyde Brewer's original "Gone and Left Me Blues." And there are those reverential nods back like Ted Daffan's "Over The Hill' and Tommy Duncan's "Time Changes Everything." Twelve tracks total. As I said, the River Road Boys know what their fans want, and with this CD once again they've delivered it in spades!

CDs: $15 plus $2 s/h each check or MO to The River Road Boys, 22011 Rosewood Trail, Tomball, TX 77377; www.riverroadboys.com, riverroadboys@sbcglobal.net, (281) 356-7174 or (281) 290-7255.

© 2009, Rick Huff

The Silver Screen Cowboy Project
Various Artists

Just the roster of artists ought to tell you this double CD set is worth your time and investment: Joe Baer, Bill Barwick, Buckshot Dot, Kip Calahan, Hank Cramer, Curly Musgrave, Les Gilliam, Earl Gleason, Brian Golbey, Tom & Donna Hatton, Tom Hiatt, Jim Jones, Journey West, Marvin O'Dell, Theresa O'Dell, Dan Roberts, Dave Stamey, Doc Stovall and Way Out West!! And if your love is reminiscing about the movie and TV cowboys of the past and mourning their passing...all the merrier!!

Radio host-songwriter-performer Marvin O'Dell told me well over a year ago he was looking for tracks to flesh out his brainchild—a tribute to the silver screen cowboys and how they've inspired Western Music to be created.

Proven fan favorites include Buckshot Dot's version of Les Buffham's award winning "Nobody Kisses Their Horse Anymore," Dave Stamey's show-stopping "If I Had A Horse" and Dan Roberts' "I Miss John Wayne." Tom & Donna Hatton represent the cowboy poets with "Little Girl's Heroes," Way Out West's "Riders Of Yesteryear" is a winner and there's "Goodbye Tex Ritter" from Brian Godbey, a singer I'd bet could muster a dead-on impression of Gene Autry if he tried. Many tracks here were newly recorded for the collection, and ten of the twenty-four tracks are O'Dell written or co-written originals.

There are different levels of appreciation to be found depending on whether you were around for the B-Western heyday. A brand new appreciation for me is found in Les Gilliam's contribution "Upon The Silver Screen." Listen and find your own. Remember, Marvin O'Dell is a radio guy. D'you think he'd put anything on here a DJ wouldn't play??!!

Double CD set: $20 ppd from Musikode Productions, 1617 W. Paseo de la Palma, Palm Springs, CA 92264, or through www.musikode.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Tuxedo Country
Tom Houston Orchestra

Somewhere between a smooth Glenn Miller blend and a hot Sinatra Vegas showband...in other words somewhere between Nagadoches and Tyler Texas(???)...the Tom Houston Orchestra is hog tyin' 'em good. And a certain group of stale-beer-and-cigarette smellin' Country and Honky Tonk classics just got real duded-up.

Tom Houston was on the faculty at Stephen F. Austin State University, he has appeared with such luminaries of the big band form as Russ Carlyle and Guy Lombardo and has backed The Mills Brothers, Bob Hope and many more. In 1989 the Tom Houston Orchestra was formed and his own big brand was burned onto big band!

With nary a twin fiddle riff or weeping steel guitar slide in sight, you might expect songs like Hank Williams' "Jambalaya," "Hey Good Lookin'" and "Cold Cold Heart" might have a tough time facing the music, as it were. Well I'm here to assure you they and seventeen other songs on the CD called "Tuxedo Country" hold up just fine, thank you kindly! Wait'll you hear "Cotton Eyed Joe" and "Faded Love" done this way! Twenty tracks in all.

If you aren't oriented at all toward the real big band dance sound, this one might not fit your needs. But know that it is exceedingly well done with terrific, inventive arrangements by Darrell Holt, in whose memory the album is dedicated.

CDs: $15 ppd through www.backfortybunkhouse.com; www.tomhoustonorchestra.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

One Life To Live
Linda Lee Filener

This lady has a female bass voice of the kind The Sweet Adelines barbershoppers will nearly kill to get into their program! She sings it straight, no vibrato. Picture Karen Carpenter only deeper and more Buffalo Gal-ish and you kinda-sorta have the idea. In fact Linda Lee Filener can and does work pretty comfortably in middle male baritone territory!

An unusual vocal instrument such as Filener's can present some challenges in finding the right material. But she and producer Gary Cook (yep, the Bar D Wranglers' flat pick guitar champ) have done a pretty decent job of it here. I don't know if I would have chosen a couple of tracks that pretty much cast her as a man (such as "Cowboy Jack"), but that's neither here nor there. The back up musicians used certainly add to the package. They include Cook and fellow Bar D boys Matt Palmer (fiddle/vocal) and Levi Mullen (harmonica/bass harmony) with Carl Johnson on steel and Audrey Allmon and Neeta Mahaffey adding harmony vocals on some selections.

For me the pick tracks are her takes on Eddy Harrison's "Waltz Of The Rainbows," Ned Miller's quirky "Do What You Do Do Well" and Red Steagall's "Red River Rose." Filener is another of the artists I will be interested in watching to observe what her future song choices are.

CDs: $15 plus $3 s/h from Blue Rose Music, PO Box 307, Yellow Jacket, CO 81335; www.lindaleefilener.com; bluerose@ftitel.net

© 2009, Rick Huff

The BAR-D Roundup, Volume Four (2009)

various artists; CowboyPoetry.com

Here's this year's stunner from CowboyPoetry.com. The Bar-D Roundup collections are designed to go into rural libraries to help reinstill in some and preserve for all ranching and cowboy traditions of their communities. However, we should all be terrifically thankful we can get our hands on them too!

The Bar-D Roundup Volume 4 is a gem. That fact shouldn't come as any huge revelation to those familiar with the series, but this time the mix of classic and contemporary Cowboy Poetry has a particularly interesting flow as you go from vision to vision. It's almost an artful documentary in verse, and definitely a welcome visit from new and old friends. Among the staggering 28 tracks here are such current masters as Joel Nelson ("The Men Who Ride No More"), Georgie Sicking ("Housewife"), Ken Cook ("The Conversation"), Jay Snider ("Of Horses & Men"), Slim McNaught ("Headin' Home"), Pat Richardson ("Henry") and so many more. Renderings of classics come from Randy Rieman, Jerry A. Brooks, Gail Steiger, Jesse Smith and others. Then there are the heart tugging visits from beyond that include Larry McWhorter ("The Red Cow"), Buck Ramsey ("Chapter Three from Grass"), J. B. Allen ("I'd Like To Be In Texas For The Roundup In The Spring"), Ray Owens ("Tracks That Won't Blow Out") and the amazing find for this volume...Gail Gardner singing his "The Sierry Petes" (aka. "Tying Knots In The Devil's Tail")!! This is as good as it gets. Get it!!!!

CDs: $20 ppd through www.cowboypoetry.com or from Cowboypoetry.com, P.O. Box 330444, San Francisco, CA 94133.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Come Ride with Me
Dave Stamey

For those rabid fans of Dave I think of as the "Stamey Cacamamies" all I'd have to say about his new CD is "Ruby Could Sing" is on it! Not only is Dave's popular new set closer on the CD but a picture of the real couple who inspired it is on the back of the album booklet!(Now that half the Western world has left to go order the CD we can talk!)

Dave Stamey seemed to languish in the bright but semi-exclusive light of the West Coast for far too long before the rest of Western Music fandom caught onto his act. And they're not about to let go, enthusiastically voting him Entertainer Of The Year...again...and other accolades at the 2008 WMA International Western Music Festival! Listening to this newest CD (still a 2008 release) provides further evidence that their faith is well placed. Along with the aforementioned "Ruby..." are live show favorites "Dusty Road," "Used Rough," "Crazy Mary," the CD's title track and "Someone Should Go Back Home" (his wry sequel to Horace Greeley's thoughts on going West)!

With great integrity Stamey delivers some really strong stuff in songs like "Geronimo's Children" and in particular "The Mission Bell." Heck, if it weren't ol' Dave a-doin' it some might call it plum subversive! The icing on the cake is the caliber of musicians along for the ride. And one of them being piano man Dave Bourne prompted some surprise hidden tracks! I won't spoil the surprise. I could go on, but let's leave it with this...you'll find some Western Music that's "different" than this, but it simply doesn't get any better than Dave Stamey!

CDs: $15 plus $3 s/h through www.davestamey.com/mercantile.html or from Horse Camp Music, 112 N. Oakglen, Nipomo, CA 93444.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Buckaroo Blue Grass
Michael Martin Murphey

Here's a review that won't be so much about an album's content as its portent!

Obviously Michael Martin Murphey isn't going to put out a product that lacks in any way. He wanted to do a bluegrass album, and what Michael wants, he gets...or finds a way to get it. Beyond really liking this CD, I also like some things it says to our neighbors over in bluegrass country. Things like "Cowboy messages can also work very well in your setting" and "remember the cowboys had the banjo too!"

Buckaroo Blue Grass is top drawer all the way. Frankly it's the best Murphey has issued in a while...and listeners, buyers and downloaders are responding to it in a major way sending it flying up a number of charts. Along with some earlier efforts like "Boy From The Country" here you'll find newly arranged versions of some of the MMM classics like "Carolina in the Pines," "Fiddlin' Man" and the one people keep forgetting he wrote "Cherokee Fiddle." On the Western side you have the first track on the CD "Lone Cowboy" (even one bluegrass writer hailed it as the song that best embodies the spirit of the collection) and "Close To The Land (America's Heartland)" along with some of the above titles that arguably have Western content as well.

Murphey's fans should eat it up and most others will likely chow down when they're through!

CDs: www.michaelmartinmurphey.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Welcome To The Tribe
Andy Wilkinson and Andy Hedges

Andy Wilkinson is not a working cowhand, but his innovative portrayals and salutes to the life (not to mention his cranky Western commentary) never fail to register as spot-on accurate with those who know. It's earned him bona fide star status at rigidly authentic cowboy events such as Elko's, Alpine's, Lubbock's, Nara Visa's (which he helped found) and others.

Now Wilkinson has teamed with his popular young poet/singer protégé Andy Hedges to produce a unique CD that is chock full of rare offerings. Among their dives into the classic stuff, there's a "Diamond Joe" using Cisco Houston verses and the chorus of a blues song with the same title, perhaps only the second recording of the song "Wild West Rambler," and "Old Paint Medley" involving the uncommon second verse done by Woody Guthrie and the song "The Horse With The Union Label" within it. There's a stunningly authentic a capella treatment of "This Dreary Life." There are several interesting amalgams here...gathered pieces and versions of songs joined to create something special. And the CD's title song could put to rest forever the argument of what constitutes a genuine cowboy. Or it could start the argument all over again!!!

The performances are just rustic enough to be solidly believable and yet remain thoroughly musical thanks in part to the cultural sensitivity of players like Bob Livingston, Lloyd Maines and the others.

Andy Wilkinson's album releases are infrequent and seem to pretty much come about only when he decides something needs to be said. They rank among the most valued and important albums of the last twenty years. As people listen, listen and listen again to really get what's going on here, I have no doubt Welcome To The Tribe will be welcomed into that revered echelon.

CDs: $15 plus $2.49 US s/h through yellowhousemusic.com/tradingpost.html

© 2009, Rick Huff

Frontier Cowboy Songs—Volume 1
Syd Masters

Syd Masters was recently accorded the singular distinction of having his song "Under New Mexico Skies" become that state's official State Cowboy Song. New Mexico has now become the first state in the nation to award a song that specific honor, and with this new album Syd reaffirms his commitment to the Western Music genre.

In the liner notes Syd writes "the purpose of this project is to preserve historical cowboy songs through modern production" and that it and future volumes in the series "will contain recognizable favorites as well as hard to find rarities." In this collection the all but unknown "Cowboys Ride" certainly qualifies. With some reworked and new lyrics ("Red River Valley," "Jesse James" and most notably "Gal I Left Behind Me"), the CD is perhaps less historical than frisky fun...but fun it certainly is!! There's no denying the sparkle of the performances and arrangements. The intricate progressive harmony of "Night Herd" songs that closes the album is worth the price of admission just on its own!

Some new Masters originals are here too, pretty much written in the style of another time. As Syd also says in the notes: "songwriting was different back then...no one was trying to write a hit or win an award...they were just trying to tell the stories they were living." Among these are "Old Bo," "Tumbleweed Kisses" and "The Game Warden."

Due to the pervasive internet, when miscreditings occur I feel obliged to intervene. "'Longside The Santa Fe Trail" and "Red Wing" are both credited to "Traditional" when in reality "Longside..." dates from 1911 and is by James Grafton Rogers (lyrics) & John H. Gower (music). "Red Wing: An Indian Intermezzo" is from 1909 by Thurland Chattaway (lyrics) & Kerry Mills (music, based on Robert Schumann's "The Happy Farmer" for you classical buffs...).

CDs: $17 ppd through www.sydmasters.com or call (505) 281-5221.

© 2009, Rick Huff

The Faraway Look
Daron Little

In his cover letter with the CD, Daron Little wrote "...it would mean a lot if you could review my little ol' CD." Okay, here goes. Daron Little and his "little ol' CD" have so much to commend them I hardly know where to begin.

It's just him, the guitar and some subtle percussion now and then, yet Little's album provides one of the best examples I've encountered of proving you can truly be "Cowboy," "Contemporary" and "acoustic" at the same time. Most of his songs are originals dealing with his own life and experiences cowboying and tributes to others. He's an accomplished singer/songwriter and his guitar work is outstanding. He doesn't move away from the easily "accessible" chords for his listener, but he maximizes the effect through refinements and movement in his acoustic guitar work.

In setting his preferred style, he's picked up only the best from the artists he cites as his inspiration. He's got the integrity of Mike Beck and the Western core experience of Ian Tyson, but he's set out on his own trail with musical assistance of artists as diverse as Muddy Waters, Jack Johnson and Bob Marley. It's already brought him some mainstage gigs at fests and it will bring him many more...guaranteed.

I strongly suggest adding Daron Little's The Faraway Look to your collection as I doubt anyone would be disappointed in the purchase of it.

CDs: $15 plus $3 s/h from Daron Little, HC 63 Box 19 B, Saratoga, WY 82331 and credit card purchases and $11 mp3 downloads are possible through his site: www.ranchcowboymusic.com

© 2009, Rick Huff

Daughters Of The West
Horse Crazy

Lauralee Northcott of Horse Crazy reports that this CD is the closest representation of the group's live effect you'll likely ever get unless it really is live! And she confessed how they did it! They worked out the arrangements, got comfortable with them in a year's worth of performances and then stepped before the microphones, offering two takes of each and then picking which was best. Not a bad method, I'd say!

This Washington state group Horse Crazy consists of Ms. Northcott (bass guitar/guitar/lead & harmony vocals), Emele Clothier (guitar/banjo/harmonica/bass guitar/ lead & harmony vocals) and Jennifer Epps (percussion/harmonica/lead & harmony vocals).

Horse Crazy's vocal harmony is tight. It's not the one-voice-times-three effect you'd get from siblings harmonizing. Rather it's like three good singers who are gal-pals (I'd never get away with "sidechicks") and having a great time with it! Lauralee points out those "harmonies are full of nuance. They change from high to low and back again, moving the melody around from part to part and weaving almost measure to measure creative change."

There are fifteen tracks plus a bonus track. It's a mix of classics, new classics and four might-become classics otherwise known as originals! Stephanie Davis' "Lone Star Swing," Terri Taylor's "Cowgirl Attitude" (didn't I say somebody would pick this one up?), three of Dave Stamey's goodies "Campfire Waltz," "The Vaquero Song" and "The Circle" are here, Chuck Pyle's fine "Night Horse" gets ridden and a former Horse Crazette Nadine Van Hees contributes "Western Moon."

Give it a try and a good time will be had by all!

CDs: $15 ppd CD or $9.99 mp3 download through www.cdbaby.com/cd/horsecrazy

© 2009, Rick Huff

Something In The Air
Nancy Thorwardson

It's one of those arrivals in the mail that guarantees there's hope for the genre. Nancy Thorwardson's new CD came in!

Actually with her, it's hope for several genres. Nancy Thorwardson ranges from Western and Western Swing to gut blues and retro jazz. I'd call it Torchy Front Porchy! Vintage nods to the left and the right, and then it's full-forward Thorwardson! And on this one she has the additional freedom of having handpicked some of her favorite bands and artists to back her. They include Halden Wofford & The Hi-Beams, Brother Mule, Swing State, Gadzukes!, Sorrento Connection and The Longhorns (I love the name...they play "long horns"...bassoons, bass clarinet...). And then you have the individual artists like the award winning Patty Clayton, the far too under-famous Michael Hurwitz and pianist Michael Creber.

At one point it occurred to me that Roy Lanham's Whippoorwills might have dived onto much of this material. But no sooner had the thought hit me when up popped one that is almost exactly their treatment!

You might get the idea that this is not your usual approach to anything! You're right. Some of it swings, some of it is Western and all of it is truly fine music in a straightforward presentation. Thorwardson is one of the writers singers watch so they can glom on to new material. They'll find some more gems here and you can get them first in their pure, uncut form!

CDs: $15 ppd through www.cdbaby.com/cd/thorwardson2

© 2009, Rick Huff

When A Poor Man Dreams
Jim Jones

Unbelievably, here is Jim Jones' third CD release in the space of twelve months! This one is nice too...and like the "Country" CD called Different State Of Mind, a couple Western tracks and some that are arguably neighbors of Western just couldn't help but mosey into what is billed as a Folk CD!

It's not too much of a stretch to place the classic cowboy wanderlust onto Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice," for example, and come up with serviceable Western imagery. And the acoustic accompaniment here is bereft of banjo. That's not to say the specific presence of banjo means it's Folk, but the absence of it sure lets it "settle" more into the Western sound. And the presence of Ian Tyson & Tom Russell's "Navajo Rug" and Shake Russell's "Deep In The West" helps drive it onto that high ground.

This release also lets Jim have another dance with a couple of his originals from an earlier album. "Who's Foolin' Who?" and "Hard Road" remain among his popular songs in his live outings and fans will be glad to find them in this new treatment. Twelve songs in all. Beyond Jim (vocals / guitar / mandolin / bass / pennywhistle / keyboards) wife Ann Morrow and daughter Adrienne Morrow Jones join in the harmony duties and the rest of the musical contributions are from Amy Blackburn (fiddle) and Scott Blackburn (guitar).

CDs: $15 plus $3 s/h from Jim Jones, PO Box 2264, Corrales, NM 87048; www.jimjonesmusic.com or $12.97 through cdbaby.com (search Jim Jones) and $9.99 for mp3 downloads.

© 2009, Rick Huff

Lullabies & Cautionary Tales
E. Christina Herr & Wild Frontier

On the outer perimeter of the Western Music herd ride some ghostly figures. E. Christina Herr & Wild Frontier are quite used to being out there. It's been their home ever since they appeared at the very first Western Music Association Festival in Tucson (1989)!

They're still at it with a mix of acoustic and sort of an Ennio Morricone-tinged rock. Threaded through it are their Western lyric themes in songs like "Whiskey Flats," "Showdown," "Devil Wind" and "Ballad Of Clara Mae." Vocally Herr isn't your Western "norm" either. She brings an intriguing feel of certain 60s vocalists like Sandie Shaw and Lulu to the party. Folks with the widest acceptance and a varied music background will likely appreciate it.

This group's output rides easiest among the outlaw Western of players like Cowboy Nation or Bone Orchard. They do what they do well and with deliberate artistic vision, and it's all but guaranteed to make the more conservative element among us blanch at the thought of the adventure. But exactly when were they ever "cutting-edge??"

CDs: $14 and mp3 downloads $9.99 through cdbaby.com/cd/echristinaherr

© 2009, Rick Huff

Different Kind Of Cowboy
Bobby Kingston

Musically the first track on this CD (which happens to be the title track) totally hooked me by the earbones! Then I paid attention to the lyrics and that reeled me in the rest of the way!

Beyond Bobby Kingston having twice been named the Western Music Association Yodeler Of The Year, I'll have to admit I didn't know a great deal about his music. Using new takes on standards and offering songs from his dad (Canadian Country star Jack Kingston) he definitely brings an interesting approach to Western and there is a lot right about this album. He owns his own recording studio, so that gives him an edge in being able to afford to invest the time needed in an album.

The album is all acoustic and proudly proclaims that fact on the back cover. Although I personally found the application of an auto harmonizer to be distracting at times, still Bobby Kingston is most certainly an artist to be taken seriously. He should be (and likely will be) among the performers who will lead Western out toward new audiences. Pick tracks here are that aforementioned title track "Different Kind Of Cowboy" (which takes the old "Happy Trails" lope and does something novel with it) and "Cattle Call" (adding live vocalists in the harmonies).

CDs: $15 through cdbaby.com/cd/bobbykingston or add $3 s/h ordering through his website www.bobkingston.com or directly from Bobby Kingston, 848 N. Rainbow Blvd., #237, Las Vegas, NV 89107; (702) 655-9347.

© 2009, Rick Huff

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