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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

Page 5

See page one for a complete alphabetical list of all reviews

(All reviews listed alphabetically by artist in a list below)

Posted 2/24
West Word Ho! by Doris Daley
Horse Tracks by Henry Real Bird
Father to Father by Curly Musgrave

Posted 2/28
Raven on the Wind by Wylie & the Wild West
Bypast Heroes by Miss V the Gypsy Cowbelle
The Creak of the Leather by Hugh McLennan

Posted 3/1
Rose Petal Pie by Denise Withnell
The Cowboy Ain't Dead Yet Vol. III by R.J. Vandygriff
This Side Of The Dirt by Richard Elloyan

Posted 3/2
Windmill In The Sunset by Earl Gleason
A Way of Heart by Almeda Terry
Second Guard by Yampa Valley Boys
Posted 3/3
A Cowboy's Song by The Sons of the San Joaquin
3 Trails West by 3 Trails West
Ladies' Choice by Rex Rideout
3/7
Cowboy Coterie by Brian Levi Bergquist
The Wild West by Cherry Creek Chorale
Lore, Lies & Legends of The American West by Gene Culkin

3/8
One Of The Boys by Jenny Lynn Anderson
Ghosts and Legends by John Bergstrom
My Mustang, My Martin and Me by Kristyn Harris
3/9
Where The West Begins by Vince & Mindi
Yodeling Familiar Trails by Tom Hawk and Greg Latta
All I've Ever Known by Pat Meade
3/10
Man Of The West by T.J. Casey
Prairie Tales From The Heart by Francine Roark Robinson

Reviews on this Page

Alphabetically by artist, below

This is page five

A
One Of The Boys by Jenny Lynn Anderson
Sulphur River by Art Anthony

B
Texas To A T by The Ball Family
Cowboy Coterie by Brian Levi Bergquist
Ghosts and Legends by John Bergstrom
Saddle Up! Music Of The West by Bill Ganz Western Band
Baxter Black's Double DVD Live by Baxter Black
Alone Under The Stars by Mike Blair & The Rafter B's
Shoulder to Shoulder by Jerry A. Brooks
Cleanin' Up by Les Buffham and A-10 Etcheverry
Writes and Co-Writes, Volume 2 by Les Buffham and Friends
Back In The Swing by Jimmy Burson

C
The Last Desperado by Chance Carter
Man Of The West by T.J. Casey
Rndnmup T.J. Casey & Jim Reader
West Of The 98th Meridian by Allan Chapman
The Wild West by Cherry Creek Chorale
Silver Screen Heroes & Other Legends by Ron Christopher
Way Out West by Richard Lee Cody and Mary Kaye
Symposium 2010 (Cowboy Poets of Utah) by various artists
The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Five (CowboyPoetry.com) by various artists
Lore, Lies & Legends of The American West by Gene Culkin
Swing Me a Song by Chuck Cusimano

D
West Word Ho! by Doris Daley
Women of the West by Sam DeLeeuw

E
American by Don Edwards
This Side Of The Dirt by Richard Elloyan
Cleanin' Up by Les Buffham and A-10 Etcheverry

F
Let 'Er Go Let 'Er Buck Let 'Er Fly by Juni Fisher

G
Cowboys in Heaven by Arden Gailey
Memories Of TV Westerns by Les Gilliam
Windmill In The Sunset by Earl Gleason

H
Austin to Boston by R.W. Hampton
My Mustang, My Martin and Me by Kristyn Harris
Cow Chasin' Words by R. L. "Slim" Hawk
Yodeling Familiar Trails by Tom Hawk and Greg Latta
Long Ways from Home by Andy Wilkinson and Andy Hedges
History in the Barn by Jessica Hedges
Christmas on the Range by Yvonne Hollenbeck
Sorting Time by Yvonne Hollenbeck
Chrome on the Range by Michael Hurwitz & the Aimless Drifters

J
Tierra Encantado—New Mexico Cowboy by Susan Jensen & Paul Singer
Feels Like Home To Me by Jim Jones

K
Western Wordsmith by Susie Knight
Northern Range by Larry Krause

L
Yodeling Familiar Trails by Tom Hawk and Greg Latta
Best Of The Early Years 1990-1995 by The Lobo Rangers

Mc
The Creak of the Leather by Hugh McLennan

M
Cookin' with Carolyn by Carolyn Martin
Morning Coffee by Richard Martin
Way Out West by Richard Lee Cody and Mary Kaye
Alone Under The Stars by Mike Blair & The Rafter B's
Oh You Cowgirl! by Shirley Morris
In This Land of Little Rain by Jane Morton
Buckaroo Bluegrass II by Michael Martin Murphey
Father to Father by Curly Musgrave

N
When I Was a Cowgirl by Barbara Nelson

O
Cowboy by Richard Olsen
Eyes on the Skyline by Camilla O'Neal

P
The Eyes of a Cowboy by J Parson
Cowboy—The Ultimate Guide To Living Like A Great American Icon by Matt Pelligrini and Rocco Wachman

R
Rndnmup T.J. Casey & Jim Reader
Horse Tracks by Henry Real Bird
Ladies' Choice by Rex Rideout
Prairie Tales From The Heart by Francine Roark Robinson

S
Tierra Encantado—New Mexico Cowboy by Susan Jensen & Paul Singer
A Cowboy's Song by The Sons of the San Joaquin
Country, Hard As Steel by Steel Country
Sleigh Belles by Sweethearts in Carhartts

T
3 Trails West by 3 Trails West
Here, There, or Anywhere by Rod Taylor
Voices from the Range by Almeda Terry
A Way of Heart by Almeda Terry
Cowboy Swing by The Texas Trailhands
Blaze Across the West by The Tumbling Tumbleweeds

V
Bypast Heroes by Miss V the Gypsy Cowbelle
The Cowboy Ain't Dead Yet Vol. III by R.J. Vandygriff
Where The West Begins by Vince & Mindi

W
Cowboy—The Ultimate Guide To Living Like A Great American Icon by Matt Pelligrini and Rocco Wachman
Live at Pearls by Jerry Webb
Long Ways from Home by Andy Wilkinson and Andy Hedges
Rose Petal Pie by Denise Withnell
Raven on the Wind by Wylie & the Wild West

Y
Second Guard by Yampa Valley Boys

Various Artists

The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Five (CowboyPoetry.com) by various artists
Symposium 2010 (Cowboy Poets of Utah) by various artists
Writes and Co-Writes, Volume 2 by Les Buffham and various artists

West Word Ho!
Doris Daley

Many light-laugh producers, quite a few heavy-laugh producers and a number of solid-thought producers are what you find in this printed collection.Come to think of it, that makes it pretty much like Doris Daley’s stage performances, doesn’t it?

Daley is that benchmark of cowboy poets and Western singers. She makes a living doing it! And if no other verse in the book tells you why that could be the case, check out “Goodnight To The Trail,” included in The BAR-D Roundup: Volume 5 (2010). It caught my attention hearing it, and getting to read it over reaffirmed why it did. It’s one of those solid-thought provokers I mentioned, and many of my favorite Daleys are from that group. Also meaningful and special in this book is a treatise on understanding...a “letter to future generations” penned by Daley’s great-great grandmother Mary telling of adjusting to her pioneer life in Canada.

Fans will feel West Word Ho! is a visit from Doris, and newcomers should feel why they would enjoy one.

Book: $25 US and $22 CDN postpaid from Doris Daley at Box 103 Turner Valley, AB TOL 2AO; www.dorisdaley.com. The website includes additional purchasing options.

© 2011, Rick Huff

Horse Tracks
Henry Real Bird

Henry Real Bird has long been a favorite poet at the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Part of that popularity stems from the fact that the Apsaalooke (aka “Crow”) Nation member and Poet Laureate of Montana has his own distinct way of doing things. It makes his voice unique.

Real Bird mostly employs so-called “free verse” with some alliteration and rhymes coming only as he feels inclined. The easy way in is to read the interviews at the back of “Horse Tracks” conducted by Hal Cannon, Taki Telonidis and NPR’s Michele Norris. If you’re new to his work and you’re one of those who prefer to let the words do the tasting, you might try this recipe for appreciating Real Bird. Step One…get this book! Step Two…begin with “Beyond Reflection” on Page 1 before setting into your poetic meal with “River Of Horse” on Page 85. Then experience the comparative bitterness of “Constellation” on Page 93. His poems hover between, around and above the two, so the next step should find you in step with Henry Real Bird.

Some of his works are fitful as the whipping wind, others are languid as the crisp stream you only discover (as he did) by riding past, not driving past. Henry Real Bird’s brightest words can light your path and the strongest should dog your trail. Either way they are definitely worth the journey.

Book: $18 US ($21 CAN) from Lost Horse Press, 105 Lost Horse Lane, Sandpoint, ID 83864 or through www.losthorsepress.org

© 2011, Rick Huff

Father to Father
Curly Musgrave

The posthumous CD release is billed as containing “the inspirational songs of Jim 'Curly’ Musgrave.” Also featured on various tracks are Belinda Gail, Brenn Hill, R.W. Hampton and Rusty Richards. It was produced by Curly’s wife Kathi, who said it was the family’s labor of love. Although customarily I do not review strictly religious material, I’m making an exception.

The status of the performers involved attests to the esthetic quality of the tracks. In some cases they’ve been drawn directly from CDs of Curly’s and a couple of them were remixed allowing new duets to be created. And the CD’s closing track is a specially prepared recreation of a spontaneous happening backstage at "Elko" where Brenn started singing a hymn in memory of Curly with Belinda and R.W. joining in on the harmony.

We can all celebrate the positivity and legacy of Curly Musgrave in our own ways. Those wanting the message in the lyrics will find it here. But the collection’s performances are endearing and, unarguably, superb. Eleven tracks total.

CDs: $15 plus $2 s/h from Kathi Musgrave, PO Box 451, Crestline, CA 92325; www.curlymusgrave.com.

© 2011, Rick Huff

Raven on the Wind
Wylie & the Wild West

Leave it to the ever adventurous Wylie Gustafson and the guys to actually make a polka sound cool! They do on this, their 14th album.

Surely by now folks have come to know Wylie & the Wild West take seriously those words "Wild" and "West" and can be counted on to push them out to the farthest pastures. Here it's once again done with justifiable and winning results. Those who know the late Lowell Fulsom's funky blues style will especially appreciate "Punchy"; "Raven On The Wind" proves there's still as much room as Ian Tyson found to fly in that Bob Marley reggae sky; and "The Maestro" is a seeming tribute from Paul Zarzyski & Wylie to the classic Tyson vocal styling. "Horseback Cadillac" would be the cowboy song Allan Toussaint would have rendered, and straight from the boogie band Canned Heat might have come "Wild Mustang." The slower cowboy ballad pacifiers here for the fans are "Hills Of Almota" and "Sweet Old Song." Then they tear through Mick Jagger & Keith Richards' "Rip This Joint" for the sheerest hell of it. And there's that funky, whoop it up wunerful a-wunerful "Hi-Line Polka" to figure out!

This is another terrific collection for the properly attuned. They know if there weren't a Wylie & the Wild West in our genre somebody would have to invent one. That's if anybody possibly could, of course.

CD: $15 plus $3.50 s/h ($10 outside US) through www.wylieww.com.

© 2011, Rick Huff

Bypast Heroes
Miss V the Gypsy Cowbelle

Bypast Heroes is the highly interesting release from “V,” a singer with a professional name so short it almost “bypast” me!

Actually word of the enigmatic “V” had come my way a year or so ago. It was spoken with reverence, and I learned there was more to her than just “V!” More letters, anyway. She’s also known as “The Gypsy Cowbelle.”

Through brilliant detective work (reading her CD’s liner notes) I learned “V” is short…incredibly so…for Nancy Vigyikan, a wonderfully full-throated interpreter of Western folk-styled creations of her own. Her CD was actually released a while ago, but I felt I couldn’t let it slip “bypast.” It is chock full of rustic goodtime folk-feeling barn-danciness, rowdy fun and tradition. My own favorites are “W.I.E. (Whiskey Induced Epiphany),” “The Saddle Song,” “Plight Of The Pronghorn,” “21st Century Cowboy,” “I Followed You” and “Brokedown Dinosaurs.” Thirteen tracks total.

Sure, somebody got carried away with the echo and reverb which places “V” a little far back in the mix…but it’s still a collection worth attention.

CD: $13 for the CD or MP3 download through www.cdbaby.com/CD/vcowbilly.

© 2011, Rick Huff

The Creak of the Leather
Hugh McLennan

The cover of radio host Hugh McLennan’s CD features him, horseback with guitar in hand. And who should appear to be there beside him but brother Jim with guitar, microphone and headset. And you thought John Lomax recorded those songs with an Edison Cylinder machine?

Seriously, this is a project the brothers McLennan apparently talked about for a good while and finally committed to disc. Listeners to Hugh’s syndicated “Spirit Of The West” broadcasts know him as a host and toastmaster with more than a poem or two in his gun belt, but he does a purt’ fair job in the singin’ department.

Jim McLennan’s guitar stylings and those of the other players (such as producer Tom Cole) add immeasurably to the proceedings, and Jim has two fine instrumental opportunities here as well. Pick tracks are Bill Barwick’s “Silent Lonely Rider,” Dave Stamey’s “Talking Bronc Ballet Blues” and the title track, a poem done to Jim’s sensitive guitar treatment of "New World Symphony," known to Westerners as “Wagon Wheels.” Fourteen tracks total.

CD: $20 plus s/h through www.cowboycountrymagazine.com and www.hugh-mclennan.com or by phone (250) 573-5731.

© 2011, Rick Huff

Rose Petal Pie
Denise Withnell

If the name (hers) sounds familiar, then it's likely that you are a reader of CD credits and liner notes. Withnell is the soaring female vocalist with the renowned group Cowboy Celtic, and best known for handling lilting and
lusty Irish material. But she and her husband (Cowboy Celtic co-founder David Wilkie) can play other stuff. Here's proof of the pudding...or rather, pie...and a sweet treat it is!

Tempos cover the gamut from jazzy waltz and sultry blues shuffle to sassy Western swing, Euro bistro and society foxtrot. The project even trotted another Western "fox" out to play. While sequestered during a blizzard Paul Zarzyski co-wrote "Flyin', Not Fallin' In Love With You" with Wilkie, and it proved to be the song that sparked the CD concept. Also present is Cindy Walker's great "Goin' Away Party," first used to mark the occasion of Bob
Wills' final recording session with the Texas Playboys. Four more Wilkie originals are here along with a jazzy swing take of "South Of The Border"; a jaunty galloping "Slow Poke" for sheer grins; and so much more. Each song is
more of a talent showpiece than the last.

Denise Withnell's Rose Petal Pie is a cuddle-up-and-get-cozy album, or a swing-til-you ring-a-ding-ding CD. Try using it for both! Twelve tracks total.

CD: $17.50 plus $3.50 s/h from Centerfire Music, Box 868, Turner Valley, AB T0L 2A0 Canada. Through www.cowboyceltic.com you can order and find a currency conversion chart.

© 2011, Rick Huff

The Cowboy Ain't Dead Yet Vol. III
R.J. Vandygriff

R.J. says with this collection he is retiring his Cowboy Ain’t Dead Yet “franchise,” although we hope as called upon he’ll still be doing the one-man stage show for which Volume I was essentially the soundtrack. It may still hold the record for morning show attendance in Branson.

At least if this truly is the final Cowboy Ain’t Dead Yet release he has given the concept one heckuva send off here! This collection of terrific Vandygriff originals and intelligent cover versions is darned near perfection. Tremendous thought and talent went into its creation, with rich arrangements and lush vocal harmony that equals that of Roy Lanham’s Whippoorwills backing Roy & Dale on their famous recordings together.

R.J.’s new winners in this release include “Keep The Campfire A-Burnin’”; “Since John Wayne Died” (which easily could have turned maudlin in the hands of a lesser writer); a great swinger in the Wills tradition, “Sweet Maddie Cates”; and two more. Pick covers include Bob Campbell’s “Roundup Time,” and two Chuck Cusimano masterworks “We Were Cowboys” and “Glory Ride.” Good versions of Alex Harvey & Tim (Ryan) Roullier’s “Goodbye To Montana”; the Livingston/Parish/Silver classic “My Window Faces The South”; and Les & Locke Hamilton’s “An Old Puncher’s Prayer” round things out. Eleven superior tracks total.

I’d put R.J. Vandygriff’s The Cowboy Ain’t Dead Yet Vol. III squarely in the must-have category!

CD: Available from www.cowboyaintdeadyet.com. The 3-volume set of The Cowboy Ain’t Dead Yet CDs is $35 (savings of $15) from CSP Records, PO Box 85, Lipscomb, TX 79056; (806) 852-2432.

© 2011, Rick Huff

This Side Of The Dirt
Richard Elloyan

Over the years quite a bit of Richard Elloyan’s material has been inspired by, honors aspects of, tells stories about and reflects memories from his home state of Nevada. This newest CD is no different, but as all of his recorded offerings prove, there is a difference.

Here as always Elloyan gives you more. In his case it’s often a case of the more you listen the more you hear, the more you hear the more you “get” and the more you get the more you want! The title track refers to cowboying-up in the face of life’s travails and has a mythic Big West feel (“I won’t complain while I remain on this side of the dirt!”). There’s “Our Town,” written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Jurbridge, Nevada. There’s “Folded Down Pages,” a neat concept song about passing along the value of the works of great Western novelists (“I saddle up once again and ride the trail between the folded down pages”). On the jaunty “Riding With My Shadow” Liz Masterson and Ken Graydon (Howdy, sir! Good to hear you again!) join on great harmony. Twelve tracks total.

There’s much to recommend in this collection, produced by Elloyan’s longtime collaborator Steven Swinford. For my money Richard Elloyan is one of the best yet most under-promoted artists working in our genre. How ‘bout making this CD the one where everybody catches on?

CD: $17.50 ppd through www.richardelloyan.net.

© 2011, Rick Huff

Windmill In The Sunset
Earl Gleason

For my taste Earl Gleason’s crowning recorded achievements to date are Saturday Night and The Wanderer in that order, but his fans should take to this newest release which likely ranks alongside his CD They All Went Thataway.

On Windmill In The Sunset it hits me that certain images across his original songs—in particular laundry-listed memories of campfires, roundups and cowboyin’—seem a little repetitious this time out. It makes some of the pieces unfairly feel like filler to flesh out the album. But there are noteworthy exceptions. He has one particular song (“The Irish Cowboy”) that is part of his personal history. There is a nicely spirited take of Gene Autry’s adaptation of the Heriberto Aceves classic “Alla En El Rancho Grande” (I hope nobody believes the English is a translation of the Spanish!). And the Bar D Wranglers provide their customary solid instrumental and harmony support.

I’m not totally sold on the mix and mastering of this release, but that’s more for technical ears, not the fans. Fifteen tracks total.

CD: $16 plus $4 s/h through www.earlgleason.com.

© 2011, Rick Huff

A Way of Heart
Almeda Terry

As Montana poet and singer Almeda Terry confesses in the second track of her newest CD, she’s a “town girl turned cowgirl.” But there should be enough real rustic content here to sell the doubters. Furthermore it’s an overview and, for her, an “innerview” that leaves little room for doubt about the collection’s genuineness.

First of all born-to-the-hide folks certainly know what it means to have married a cowboy! Terry’s delivery is engaging as she tells the story of, say, “Willy The Wonder Horse” in verse or “A Cowboy Memory” in song. And her thorough annotation gives you the exact context and heart behind her choices here. In one selection she despairs over “Some Folks” who only want their cowboy material created by real cowfolk. To her argument one might add the way such folks see things those Irish immigrants, freed slaves and others who took up cowboyin’ later in life by necessity had no right to create some of those Western songs we now revere, either.

The plaintive guitar and fiddle supplied by Ms. Terry on some tracks, with recordings of Phil & Vivian Williams used on others and the sublime fiddle of Britt Smith on “Atmosphere” indeed provide a suitable “atmosphere.” There are some deceptively complex subjects and some painful honesty, but it all ends happily enough (“My Montana Man”)! Thirteen tracks total.

CD: $18 ppd from Almeda Terry, 1650 Nahmis Ave., Huntley, MT 59037 or through www.almedam2bmusic.com

© 2011, Rick Huff

Second Guard
Yampa Valley Boys

Once again Colorado’s Yampa Valley Boys ride in with a rustic, folksy winner!

Warm as a wood fire, the CD starts off with Sandra Reay’s WMA-nominated Song Of The Year, “Already Gone” (also present is her creation “One Lonely Rider”). For the title track the Yampa’s Steve Jones has given Bruce Kiskaddon’s poem “Second Guard” an appropriate musical setting.

Other Jones originals on the CD “Colors Of The Fall” and “Callin’ Of The Pipes” should find favor with their fans. He and partner John Fisher are joined by Leon Littlebird on his “Home Of Light,” inspired by a Navajo poem. This particular track marks an interesting stylistic departure for the Yampas, who say they feel this disc represents some of their best work to date. I concur! Thirteen tracks total.

CD: $20 ppd from Yampa Valley Boys, PO Box 773611, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477; www.yampavalleyboys.com.

© 2011, Rick Huff

A Cowboy's Song
The Sons of the San Joaquin

The core members of this lusty-voiced family band have long been thought of as undisputed standard bearers of our Western Music genre. That’s because so many of their albums seem to bear soon-to-be standards for people to perform!! The Hannah’s newest release should furnish the catalogue with several more.

From the first notes of the CD’s up-tempo opener “Howdy Do,” you recognize this one must be from The Sons of the San Joaquin and it’s another winner…arguably their best since From Whence Came The Cowboy. Other fine new Jack Hannah originals and collaborations you’ll come to know like the back of your hand include “He’s A Rover,” “Heaven’s Right Here” (with Rich O’Brien), “The Girl With The Broken Heart,” “Timberline Camp,” “Lord, I’m Just An Old Cowboy,” “Lie Down Little Dogie Lie Down” (a Lon Hannah lead vocal), “He Won’t Cuss The Rough String Anymore,” the title track “A Cowboy Song” and “Ol’ Jim Bridger.” Cover versions of Bob Nolan’s “Chant Of The Plains,” Tim Spencer’s “Slow Movin’ Cattle” “Scott Wiseman’s “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” and one attributed to Roy Rogers “Down Along The Sleepy Rio Grande” top it all off. If you weren’t counting, that’d be fourteen tracks total.

Top session musicians (including the purely elegant former “Son” Richard Chon, Ginny Mac, and Rich O’Brien among others) firmly tie down and brand this one “GREAT!”

CD: $15 plus shipping calculated at www.westernjubilee.com
© 2011, Rick Huff

3 Trails West
3 Trails West

Emerging from the popular Kansas variety group The Blackbury Band comes the equally frisky, swinging 3 Trails West, now a new favorite among attendees at the annual WMA Showcase & Awards Show. When not shining on stage, they are frequently found holding court in the hallway with their tight harmony and energetic playing letting everyone know what Western music is about…or, should be, at least…

The group’s long-awaited first CD release showcases everything they bring to the feast. Ultra sharp fiddle and steel work supporting crisp, lusty vocals sets the fun running at a gallop. Their track “Kansas Sandman” is among the keepers here along with “Texas Belle,” “Out On The Open Range,” “Wahoo,” “Dude Cowboy” and nine more as nice. 3 Trails West is a good-time show band whose members understand entertainment, and because of that a good time should be had by all. Recommended without reservation!

CD: $15 + $1 s/h through www.3TrailsWest.com
© 2011, Rick Huff

Ladies' Choice
Rex Rideout

Here ‘s one of the more eclectic collections to wander along in many moons, with content as surprising as its cover.

Beginning with the CD concept, “Courtship,” singer/preservationist and multi-instrumentalist Rex Rideout rides on into Courtship going on despite life around it, life going on with Courtship possibly around it and conditions in the world, and (we’ll have to assume) Courtship must be going on in the song next door. In other words, he doesn’t limit himself to the theme!

The rustic vintage acoustic banjo/guitar instrumentation is a purist’s delight on such tracks as “Mexicali Rose,” and then a parlor piano accompanies Rideout on a plaintive “Jeannie With The Light Brown Hair.” Elsewhere in Rideout’s collection find the waltz “Ride Out To The West” (pun intended?); the dead soldier toast ”The Vacant Chair”; the English drinking song “How Stands The Glass Around”; “Hard Times Come Again No More”...you know…courtship! Sixteen tracks total…and a quick hidden seventeenth I just now discovered.

What the heck. It’s fun, it’s well done. Stop asking so many silly questions!

CD: $15 plus $2 s/h through www.timetravelmusic.com; Time Travel Music, 10753 Conifer Mtn. Rd., Conifer, CO 80433.
© 2011, Rick Huff

Cowboy Coterie
by Brian Levi Bergquist

Occasionally a collection comes along from a songwriter/producer or a team that employs other musicians to perform the works. There was a PBS-styled video and CD from the '90s called All My Friends Were Cowboys with Wilfred Brimley and other performers that I would place into this category. Earlier in this decade producer/musicians John W. Bizzack and Marvin Adcock released three CDs with a studio group they called “Pistol River” for the purpose. Now from Canada comes songwriter Brian Levi Bergquist (aka “The Song Wrangler”) with his collection of songs and verse recorded largely in Nashville and produced by Bill Watson.

Cowboy Coterie is a classily mounted package whose subject matter ranges from cowboyin’, outlawin’, dancing, Western musing, tall tales, Eskimos (!) and love. Basically solid vocal performances are by William Sherry, Jr., Chris Mannino, Summer Hullender, Jim Drinkwater and Doc Hayes (who renders one of the CD’s more eccentric tongue-in-cheek departures in which Geronimo is purported to be Haime Schwartz from the Bronx)! The songs are pleasantly approachable if periodically complex in the lyric content. Also I felt someone was playing with the effects bank on the recording console a bit more than was advisable, but Cowboy Coterie is certainly an unusual and original addition to the Western music library. Curiously one of the CD’s most effective tracks is the one voiced by Bergquist himself…the poem “My Forty Years On The Wagon!” That’s the chuckwagon, not the sobriety one! Fifteen tracks total.

CD: $20 CAN ppd (money order) from Brian Levi Bergquist, 22 Sandpiper Bay, Brandon, Manitoba Canada R7C 1E1 or email berbridge@mts.net

© 2011, Rick Huff

The Wild West
Cherry Creek Chorale
Brian Patrick Leatherman, Artistic Director & Conductor
(featuring Bill Barwick & The Sons Of The Tumbleweed)

Here’s one of those live concert collaborations between classical musicians and a pack of rowdy cowboys! I bet they still never got the ‘pokes poked into tuxes!

Actually the recording’s direct collaborations between the genres consist of Barwick’s own “Carolyn In The Sunset,” “Ghost Riders In The Sky,” and Dave Kirby’s “Colorado” which closes the concert. There’s a novel arrangement of “Buffalo Gals” handled by the Women of the Chorale. Otherwise it’s Bill & the guys doing their thing in a segment (“Colorado Sky,” “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” and Bill’s own “Just Lucky I Guess” and “There Ain’t No Quit”) and various assemblages of the Cherry Creek Chorale adeptly handling their performance chores (Men’s and Women’s with the Colorado Children’s Chorale Concert Choir, Mary Louise Burke, Conductor & Tad Koriath, pianist).

The recording does show each of the performing components of the concert to be quite skilled in their respective musical forms. Perhaps budget was a consideration in both of my nitpicks. First, I wish there had been a direct mic line run to the soloists for the recording that would have provided more presence. And secondly, I wish there were liner notes offered in the album explaining more about the artistic vision for the concert. But it is a noteworthy contribution to the catalogue, and hopefully more concerts of the type will result.

2 CD SET: Contact The Cherry Creek Chorale, Mary Ann Stevens, 828 S. Alkire St., Lakewood, CO 80228; www.cherrycreekchorale.com

© 2011, Rick Huff

Lore, Lies & Legends of The American West
by Gene Culkin

I’m going to go out on a limb a little, as I am not familiar with Gene Culkin’s background. I’m going to predict that in Mr. Culkin you have a seasoned entertainer, smooth and polished having spent years in the business. Unless he just takes to performing more naturally than anyone I can remember encountering...Culkin has crafted his presentation to be a complete sentence, if you will, with subject, predicate and direct object intact.

His CD begins with his own theme song “The Tunesmith.” Then he proceeds to present good, mostly original songs...with good variety...in a solid, soft-edged baritone that makes you believe his songs are all familiar to you. It’s that well-practiced conveyed comfort zone that makes me believe surely I must know his past.

Particularly good songs include “Good Ol’ Feelin’ of Free,” “Singin’ My Song To The Sky,” “If You Would Ride Along” and I have to say he impressed me with his saga song “Legend Of The Stairs at Loretto” about the “miracle staircase” in Loretto Chapel sixty miles north of where I’m writing this. A carpenter appeared and created a physically impossible circular staircase with no nails. In lesser hands a song telling its convoluted story could have gone south, but his works. In fact the whole CD works. Work it into your collection.

CD: Contact Gene Culkin, 131 Hall Circle Apartment #24, Tustin, CA 92780 or call 714-730-7016.

© 2011, Rick Huff

One Of The Boys
Jenny Lynn Anderson

…and if you believe that CD name you need glasses! Jenny Lynn Anderson is the daughter of cowboy singer David Anderson, late of the group STAMPEDE! Ms. Anderson seems to have inherited the distaff version of her father’s singing apparatus as she is decidedly a female basso profundo (“bassa profunda?").

Although her debut CD does have Western Music content, her song choices (at least on this album) would place it more in the acoustic Americana bin. Pick tracks include those Western songs mentioned “One Less Tornado,” “Cowgirl In Line” and “Buffalo Grass.” Pick Country tracks are “Rockin’ With The Rhythm Of The Rain” and “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool.”

Occasionally there is some less than inspired fiddle work that intercedes in the proceedings. Papa David Anderson is now performing with his daughter, and as budgets allow I’m certain top drawer session and production folks will be employed. I feel she’s good enough to warrant the effort. Eleven tracks total.

CD: Order information not furnished. David & Jenny Lynn are on Facebook.

© 2011, Rick Huff

Ghosts and Legends
John Bergstrom

Each of John Bergstrom’s releases has shown his growth as a performer. Happily we can affirm Ghosts and Legends marks his best effort to date.

In his originals in this collection Bergstrom displays less of a tendency to put an entire novel’s worth of material into one song. Also he employs a more laid back ballad style in his vocal approach. Both are to the good on this CD. The album is dedicated to the late Drew Daniels (bass & vocals) who also recorded and mixed the project but passed away suddenly prior to its release. Other musical chores were handled by Dave Jackson (accordion & bass), Tom Corbett (mandolin & vocals) and John Nelson (guitar, banjo & vocals).

Pick tracks include the title track, one about a lady driver, “Charlie Parkhurst,” “Tombstone,” “The Oregon Trail” and then there’s that now nearly obligatory collaboration artists must have with Les Buffham! This one is “Ballad Of Isom Dart.” Twelve tracks total.

CDs: $15 ppd US (add $3 s/h international orders) through www.scvoutwest.com or from John Bergstrom, 27676 Caraway Lane, Saugus, CA 91350.

© 2011, Rick Huff

My Mustang, My Martin and Me
Kristyn Harris

In a lift from “My Rifle, My Pony & Me,” young Kristyn Harris does seem to have her Western priorities straight.

The starring element on this CD is Ms. Harris’ clear, strong vocal quality. It’s particularly sophisticated and controlled for a performer of her age. I hope she connects with a producer who is attuned to her and oversees her next project. Here she handles the songs well, including “Roll On Texas Moon,” “Swing Time Cowgirl,” “How The West Was Swung” and nine more. But I have to say she is not well served by the all too obvious absence of a standing string bass in the session. Having Mark Abbott or someone would have made a big difference in the overall effect. Someone is credited with supplying electric bass but I’ll be danged if I can pick it up.

Ms. Harris may someday join some pretty hallowed ranks, and when she does you can say you have her first release...if you actually get her first release, of course! Eleven tracks total.

CD: $15 plus $3 s/h through www.mustangswing.com/Kristyn or from Kristyn Harris, PO Box 6807, McKinney, TX 75071.

© 2011, Rick Huff

Where The West Begins
Vince & Mindi

In his cover letter, Vince Crofts hopes I’d like this new CD as well as I did the duo’s first one. The answer to that is “absolutely!”

Once again their great vocal blend is supported by Croft’s strong acoustic guitar work and Mindi Reid-Palmer’s doghouse bass. The title song is an original melody from Crofts with Arthur Chapman’s famous verse appearing on walls and embroidered pillows across the land. There‘s a fresh treatment of “Cowboy’s Sweetheart” and a startlingly original minor-to-major key take on “Cool Water,” but it’s hardly a collection of standards! They give their own spin to three of Andy Parker’s long overlooked songs “The West Is As Wild As Ever,” “Ridin’ The Same Old Range” and “Roamin’ In Wyoming.” They offer up Nat Vincent & Fred Howard’s “Old Black Mountain Trail” and Joyce Woodson’s “If I Hadn’t Seen The West.” Then to snap you to attention, they do Duane Allman’s instrumental “Little Martha!” Fourteen tracks total.

These folks are an adventure. Try it! Your brain may enjoy the exercise…

CD: $15 plus $2 s/h from Vincent Crofts, 617 E 700 N, Firth, ID 83236 and through www.vinceandmindi.com.

© 2011, Rick Huff

Yodeling Familiar Trails
Tom Hawk and Greg Latta

To his credit, “The Yodeling Professor” left professing and came to the music, loved it, and began learning how to do it.

Done with multi-instrumentalist Greg Latta providing the accompaniment, Tom Hawk gives credit to two of his yodeling inspirations Taylor Ware and Margo Smith. He also states that all of the songs have been recorded by others but they are songs that have spoken to his heart and bring him joy. Can’t argue with sentiments like that!

Hawk is a developing artist who is obviously working to create within his chosen art form, and he can get there through perseverance. The technical aspect of yodeling is in place already. There could be more of the seemingly effortless warble of the bird about it and the smile he shows on his CD cover needs to also be audible in the songs. Also a good producer’s ear in the mixdown...some reverb here, a backed-off attack there...never hurts. Twelve tracks total.

It’s a worthy first outing, and we’ll watch how things develop.

CD: $16 plus $3 s/h check or money order to Tom Hawk, 1816 Highland Ave., Cumberland, MD 21502-2640.

© 2011, Rick Huff

All I've Ever Known
Pat Meade

Balladeer Pat Meade’s fans will likely embrace his fifth album. It’s an agreeable little collection that pretty much goes about illustrating its title song’s name.

Two Les Buffham collaborations are here (“Spin That Pony” co-written with Dave Stamey and “Simple Little Questions” created with Jean Prescott) and five from songwriter Terry Smith…one of which (“Ten Seconds In The Saddle”) I’d call a CD pick track.

Some of the arrangements here employ harmony and solos from singer Ann Brock, and each time she is used the effect is enhanced. In one of those examples the creation of “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” seems to be honored. Singer/songwriter Ed Bruce was stuck in traffic and experiencing writer’s block when he grumbled the phrase aloud “Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be guitar pickers!” Inspiration for the title and first verse hit. Then writer’s block struck again. Ed’s wife Patsy contributed Verse two writing about Ed. That’s the way it’s sung on Meade’s CD. Fourteen songs total.

CD: $15 plus $3 s/h from Pat Meade, 16487 Stone Street, Milo, Iowa 50166.

© 2011, Rick Huff

Man Of The West
T.J. Casey

As T.J. says himself, his book contains “stories, poems, musings and ramblings.” Of course even the musings and ramblings make horse sense, cow sense and cowboy logic!

Many of this volume’s words were done for his newspaper column, and “word” from one Sunday morning publication (“The Glenrock Bird”) has it that his thoughts spur coffee counter and breakfast table discussions. Now you can experience the phenomenon at other times of the day!

The meter of Casey’s poetry being exact should come as no surprise. Likely he’s at least thinking about how to put a good deal of it to music! His thoughts on cowboying, ranching, people and other aspects of life filtered through the stirred-up dust consistently ring true. And his sayings at the bottom of many of the book’s pages contain some worthy pearls as well…such as “growin’ up we lived so far out in the brush they had to pipe sunlight in to us,” or “you should always leave loved ones with loving words…it may be the last time you see them,” or “if you think about what you do before you do it, you won’t have to think about what you did after you did it!”

Some readers may find the print set in constant italics a little fatiguing to read. If so, do it in spurts! 120 pages soft bound.

Book: $12.95 plus $2.50 s/h from Cowboy Enterprises, Inc., PO Box 31676, Billings, MT 59101, or through www.tjcasey.com.

© 2011, Rick Huff

Prairie Tales From The Heart
Francine Roark Robinson

Her delivery style is more direct and less acted. She lets the words carry the weight...and they do. It’s pretty plain to see why a state would name Francine Roark Robison its Cowboy Poet Laureate, as Oklahoma indeed has.

Whether describing an event (“When Daddy Came Home From The Field”), a moment (“New Arrival” or “Wild Horses”) or reflecting on things gained and lost (“O Say Can You See”) you know it’s real and you gain a real appreciation of it. And not many poets could do better taking an occurrence as simple as a child asking her granddad to fashion a harness for her toy pony and imbuing it with the meaning, history, life and tradition the old man’s hands bring to the task.
Plaintive, rustic music created by “Rodeo Kate” Howell and husband Allen “Hoot Al” Chapman is utilized in a rather different way here...more like preshow, entr’acte and curtain call themes. Francine Roark Robison’s Prairie Tales From The Heart is a quiet little charmer that deserves a spot on your shelf. Twenty-one tracks in all.

CD: Ordering info not furnished. Contact Francine Roark Robison through FrancineRR@juno.com or call (405) 226-6342.

© 2011, Rick Huff

American
Don Edwards

Don’t be expecting some sweet li’l round up the cattle kind of project here! Never one to mince words, Don Edwards purposefully returns with a set of songs that are plain ol’ tough-minded for our current times.

Obviously performances by Edwards will always be superior. The point of this exercise is the ingenious selection and order of the material. It’s how he sets his CD’s mission statement in a context of everything America is and has been, warts and all. In doing so he clearly presents his own stand without simply mouthing the empty incendiary invective employed for commercial gain by the pack of failed DJs who now call themselves public champions of the airwaves.

Starting with Merle Travis’ “I Am A Pilgrim,” Edwards escorts us through melodic lessons such as the medley of Dan Emmet’s “Dixie” with Katherine Lee Bates’ “America The Beautiful”; Andy Wilkinson’s look at inequality. “The Freedom Song”' and Marty Robbins’ “My Own Native Land” (sobering, considering how long ago it was penned). Edwards spells it out for you in his own sharp-toothed “Hard Times” that offers the line, “Left wing or right wing…I’ve got this to say…they’re just two wings of the same bird of prey!” And he wraps with “This Land Is Your Land,” sounding the true note he wants to end on.

It is also likely no accident that he has elected to present "The End of the West" as we choose to think of it, with Ed Bruce and Ron Peterson‘s “The Last Cowboy Song” and a second version of the dour song “The Campfire Has Gone Out.” I mean if we’re gonna get "tough"…

Twelve tracks total.

CD: $15 through www.westernjubilee.com or $15 plus $4.80 s/h (Texas residents add 7.75% tax) through www.donedwardsmusic.com where you will find five different ways to purchase.

© 2010, Rick Huff

In This Land of Little Rain
Jane Morton

The well respected poet Rod Miller offers a foreword to this new collection from Jane Morton that says most of the things I would like to have said! “Her work emerges from the Western Plains like a song or sea of grass,” he says. “Jane reaches out to everyday ranch life and plucks pieces of poetic beauty,” he says. If he’s gonna steal my thunder, I’m gonna steal some more of his!

Miller also says, “Much of what passes for cowboy poetry amounts to nothing more than punch-line jokes forced into uncomfortable patterns of ragged rhyme and clunky meter!” Strong words…and pardon my poetic moment, but I’ve not had the huevos to "say those!: They would likely never be said of the verse put forth by Jane Ambrose Morton. With ferocious economy of word and image, she offers thoughts and leaves indelible marks on the memory…always in nicely rhythmic meter. Some of the most moving poems deal with her memories of the family ranch that people will still refer to as “The Ambrose Place,” even though her brother sold it out from under the family after her dad’s passing. Morton comes to terms with it…at least, in poetic terms.

Whether she is writing of a small moment in time or a giant concept for all time, Jane Morton understands how to deliver the goods. In one case she sent them Special Delivery to me, in a work she calls “Adrenaline Rush: The Bull Rider’s Story.” I’ll just say the final ten words of that poem hit me like a bolt of lightning. I won’t quote them here to steal her thunder.

Book (softcover) 134 pages: $13.95 plus $4.50 shipping from Jane Morton, 12710 Abert Way, Colorado Springs, CO 80908; 719-495-9304; janemortonpoet@gmail.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Austin to Boston
R.W. Hampton

Referring to the title of the new CD, I’m tempted to say on this release R.W. is tripping…but I won’t! Maybe the project’s A & R person was, though…

For the uninitiated, “A & R” is short for “Artist and Repertoire” and refers to the people in charge of matching up the talent with the material. Just about any time R.W. Hampton opens his mouth, there’s going to be a result that is worth the effort. So there are enough inspired performances and arrangements his new mix of Western music and Country selections to please the fans. Perhaps it’s because he has proven to be so very inspiring so often in the past that a momentary lapse of it shows up more clearly. Here the selections run from “inspired” to “okay.”

Thoroughly wonderful offerings like the joyfully swinging “Drifting Again,” a moving “Danny Boy” and covers of “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “You Don’t Know Me” more than offset the ones that strike me as being along for the ride.

Curiously there are some songs here with titles remarkably close to those of other famous songs. Examples are “Lady” (not the Kenny Rogers hit), “Dream On Little Dreamer” (not the Perry Como song) and “Shortgrass” (not Ian Tyson’s). Still this one should line up with the other albums in R.W.’s catalog as being worthy of a spot in your collection. Fourteen tracks total.

CD: $20 plus $5 s/h through www.rwhampton.com. Order online or call toll free 1-(800) 392-0822.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Christmas on the Range
Yvonne Hollenbeck

Reading the poetic holiday memories and visions of the awarded cowboy poet Yvonne Hollenbeck, you may feel that they should come from a Frank Capra movie. But such truly were the life experiences of a young (then) Nebraska ranch girl.

Some of the works included in the warm little volume for grownups, entitled simply Christmas On The Range, are interpreted by the author as part of the Sweethearts In Carhartts’ holiday release Sleigh Belles. She is certainly out to ensure the “Merry” isn’t left out of “Christmas,” but there is a deeper level of poignant reminiscence to be found between these covers as well (“How The Poor Folks Are Doing” and “The Junk Man”). And, naturally, also present is the wry wit that her readers and listeners have come to expect from the Erma Bombeck of the genre. In “Virginia I Believe” she puts forth the humorous evidence that proves Santa must be a she! In “The Heinous Husband Award” she lambasts the quality of thought put into gifts by males. And in “Christmas Shopping With A Man”…well, possibly you shouldn’t.

Yvonne Hollenbeck’s Christmas On The Range should bring you a pleasant little break from the holiday hubbub, in the humor and the heart. Adding to the personal stamp on the volume are vintage photos from Christmases long ago and, well, not far away. She’s just over in South Dakota now, after all!

Book (hardbound) 74 pages: $15 plus $3.50 s/h from Yvonne Hollenbeck, 30549 291^st Street, Clearfield, SD 57580; geetwo@gwtc.net; (605) 557-3559.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Sleigh Belles
Sweethearts in Carhartts

Here’s as homespun a Christmas feel as you will ever likely find in recorded form! It’s a nostalgic memory trip that sashays and swings but also manages to offer a good bit of commentary on our times as well.

The “Sweethearts” are, of course, the superb Western singer/songwriters Jean Prescott and Liz Masterson and renowned cowboy poet Yvonne Hollenbeck. On their new collaboration the Santa-to-Christian ratio is roughly 50/50, with Hollenbeck providing much of the CD’s nostalgic holidays-gone-by feel (“The Christmas Quilt” and “An Old Fashioned Christmas”). But she still gets off some good commentary, such as when she talks about the imports in Santa’s sack these days and how we can literally bite back (“An All-American Christmas”).

If Hollenbeck’s assignment (if you will) for the album was "homespun" then maybe Liz Masterson’s was "festive" (“Come On Ring Those Bells,” “When It’s Christmas On The Range,” “The Pot Bellied Stove”) and Prescott’s was "spiritual’"(“Mary’s Christmas,” “Beautiful Star Of Bethlehem,” “From Cradle To Cross To Crown”). Whether or not that was actually the plan, the balance should prove to work well for the fans.

In content it’s a mammoth CD…double the norm, with 24 tracks total. With this release our singin’ and recitin’ “Sleigh Belles” have added a seasonal album to the hopper that should be able to be offered for years to come.

CD: $22 ppd from Sweethearts in Carhartts, Prescott Music, PO Box 194, Ovalo, TX 79541. Or you can order through www.thesweetheartsincarhartts.com; jeanprescott@taylortel.net; (325) 583-2553

© 2010, Rick Huff

Cowboy Christmas Eve
Way Out West

In their little Christmas “CD-lette” of eight tracks, Way Out West still manages to keep an interesting edge on their sound. It’s their signature, I’m beginning to see.

The somewhat different feel of this group comes largely from the arrangements and some unorthodox lyrics. They are rooted in the traditional, but then they can also move off in their own direction. To fully appreciate that, I guess you’ll just have to hear them.

The pick tracks are the title song “Cowboy Christmas Eve”; a very nice waltz, “This Is Christmas” with its vocal by guest artist Don Armstrong; “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”; “Here Comes Santa Claus” (attributed in part to Gene Autrey rather than "Autry"); and a Country Swing New Year’s resolution piece called “Another List.” A couple of the tracks have tricky melodies that (for me) occasionally come close to bringing the pitch of the lead vocal into question, but it’s fairly minor. And know there are some stronger lyrics in the gaily loping song “Night Ride” than some may expect in a holiday release.

Overall Tucson’s Way Out West is probably worth your time and your attention…especially at the price.

CD: $12 ppd from Blue Bhikku Records, Box 41521, Tucson, AZ 85717; (520) 323-0704; bbhikku@msn.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Elizabeth's Christmas Eve Gift
Chesna Smith
(illustrated by Ben Miller & Shawna Wright)

This book is aimed at children age five to ten and tells a bit of the actual story of author Chesna Smith’s husband’s grandmother. Much of it features the basic chores and daily happenings that contributed to her upbringing on the Miller Ranch in Borden County, Texas in the 1920s. Watercolor illustrations also help set the rural mood.

The ranch ran sheep, for the most part, and the need to have hounds on the place and to keep a sharp eye out for coyotes is a part of it. Elizabeth moves through her day of chores on one particular December 24th. A family tradition on Christmas Eve was to see who would be first to shout out the phrase “Christmas Eve Gift!” It didn’t involve the actual giving of gifts at that moment, just the shouting of it. But on this night Elizabeth’s dad has something more in store when he says it.

In depicting the “gift” and conveying the religious message she seeks to put forth, author Chesna Smith seems to be using the animals’ natural nighttime “kneeling” posture to equate to genuflection. If that is not specifically what she intends (the illustration does take it further than that) at least that would more easily line up with the rest of this book’s literal, physical ranching portrait.

Book (Hardcover): $15.95 through www.perkycowgirl.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Oh You Cowgirl!
Shirley Morris

Very nicely rendered here is the story (both unsung and sung) of the professional rodeo ladies who competed on the same animals and in the same events as the guys…and then had to compete even further for any small measure of equal attention and reward. You might recall Jean Prescott sang about them a while back, and then they once again sort of sank in the Western dust. In this skillfully assembled DVD, they’re back and kickin’ up said dust!

For the most part the sung portion of the story is handled (wonderfully, of course) by Juni Fisher. Included are a number of appropriate songs found on her CD Let ‘Er Go Let ‘Er Buck Let ‘Er Fly. But the unsung portion can really make the emotions well up, too. Filmmaker Shirley Morris has devoted a lot of time into unearthing the research and proofs required to make that happen. And hopefully it will make men of a certain mindset sit a little less comfortably in their saddles.

Partly solved in this story is the long entrenched mystery of Prairie Rose Henderson, or should we say the various “Prairie Roses.” Particularly rough is the story of the one who was even denied her due in death. Actual footage of some of the heroic ladies’ rides is here, and the stories of each will hopefully serve as an inspirational prod onward to anyone needing it.

Western historical DVDs of this caliber are rare to begin with, and Shirley Morris’ Oh You Cowgirl! tells a story that deserves to be in the foreground of that Western history. It may well go down as the hallmark of its kind.

DVD: $25 through www.thecowgirlmovie.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Feels Like Home To Me
Jim Jones

And what should arrive when you were least expecting it but another CD from the prolific singer and songwriter Jim Jones! I believe that’s four in less than two years, but who’s counting? It’s the quality that actually counts.

Of course I must confess Jim and I are fairly regular writing partners and there is a collaboration of ours on this album. I’ll get to it in a minute, but first I’ll say I’m reviewing this CD because I didn’t produce it. Jim has also collaborated again with Allan "Hoot Al" Chapman (“Smoke Of The Brandin’ Fire” and the CD’s title track) and Bruce Huntington (“Flow Rivers Flow” and “Wyatt’s Lament”). All four are songs very worthy of being covered by other artists. He helped set the Russ Knox-Waddie Mitchell-Gail Steiger poem “Bet On Me and You” to music and covered fine songs of Jon Messenger, Doc Stovall and Bob Campbell (“Shug’s Tune,” “Cowboys” and “Roll On Cowboys” respectively). A new Mark Smith song, “Nickel .44,” is practically a novelette in lyrics and Jim found time to write one solo (“Change Is Comin’”) while collaborating on another with his mom (“King”)! And then there’s “Sarah Calico.” To me, it’s a haunted song.

It began with a title suggestion of Jim’s. Then one night something delivered the eerie story and lyrics to me in not a great deal more time than it takes to sing it. Nearly two years later Jim adapted them to his melody. Frankly to this day the thing unnerves me. But we deliver it to you here. You be the judge…

CD: $12.97 through www.cdbaby.com/cd/jimjones7 for the disc or $9.99 for the MP3 download and $.99 per song download.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Cleanin' Up
Les Buffham and A-10 Etcheverry

The tales and ‘toons in the new spiral-bound book Cleanin’ Up cover those times when do it yourself becomes do it "to" yourself and that’s how it goes turns into that’s how it goes all over you!

Cowboy poet and tall tale spinner Les Buffham was somehow, through one of those ironic twists of nature, allowed to meet and, worse yet, become friends with Cowboy culture cartoonist Etienne (“A-10”) Etcheverry! The rest is history. Or hysteria, depending. Beyond a doubt this one is best appreciated by folks who live the lifestyle and those who are of a certain mindset. For them it’s a treasury full of poems, tales and cartoons about things that can’t happen (but do) to people who can’t exist (but do)!

The cartoons notwithstanding, as an “art” piece the book is certainly your resource for stories to have in your arsenal when you get into one of those round robin Top This shaggy dog, shaggy horse, shaggy snake or shaggy cowboy storyin’ fests. How ‘bout this: Set Cleanin’ Up out as a status piece on your coffee table and see if people start to scratch…

Book: $20 by contacting lesbuffham@yahoo.com or A10@crayolacowboy.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Cowboy Swing
The Texas Trailhands

One of the friskiest, friendliest, whoopitupinest bands to ever emote across a campfire is back with their new set of snappy tracks. And I suspect fans will make tracks to snap it up!

Along with originals, The Texas Trailhands specialize in giving fresh spins to the classics and unearthing little-heard gems. This time they’ve got some Parisienne gypsy swing from Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grapelli in “Gold) Minor Swing” (get the Western pun?); “Hootin’ Owl Trail” from Johnny Mercer & Robert Dolan; “Mort Dixon & Harry Woods’ “River Stay Away”; and Grady Martin & Alex Zanetis’ “Snap Your Fingers.” Of course they don’t miss an opportunity to give a spin to new favorites like Bob Campbell’s “I Love Goin’ Dancing,” or parade some nifty new ones (Devon Dawson & Allan Chapman’s “Gypsy Moon,” or Miss Devon’s & Les Buffham’s “West Of Santa Rosa”). Allan Chapman’s popular “These Cowboy Boots” and his novel “Carhartt Browns” (as in cowboy blues, y’know) get the Texas Trailhands treatment. Eleven tracks total.

In their approach The Texas Trailhands might be called a serious novelty. I suppose that translates into “they’re fun and they mean it!” Pick this one up…and I mean it!

CD: $18 ppd in the US, $23 ppd outside through www.thetexastrailhands.com or directly from The Texas Trailhands, PO Box 163226, Fort Worth, TX 76161-3226.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Blaze Across the West
The Tumbling Tumbleweeds

In this review column I said I felt that on The Tumbling Tumbleweeds’ debut CD the wonderfully talented young harmony group was not particularly well served by their production people. Their follow-up release arrived with a note saying they took it to heart and hoped I liked the new one. Rest easy, guys. This time you absolutely nailed it!

In their terrific originals like “The Mighty Santa Fe,” “Lazin’ Down The Trail,” “Sleepin’ On A Mountain,” and “California” everything is there for a reason. It’s all showcase, never showoff. And when they handle the classics like “Oregon Trail,” “Cattle Call” or “Dear Hearts And Gentle People” everything is done with supreme care and obvious affection for the material. On this release they’ve also invited some really interesting guests, including Ric Steinke of Open Range, Gary “Harmonicowboy” Allegretto and the fine Conjunto Norteẽo accordion player Otoẽo Lujan.

The Tumbling Tumbleweeds use barbershop quartet-tight harmony patterns and are not some carbon copy of an existing group. One of the ways you can spot the originality of their approach is to hear them perform tracks like Bob Nolan’s “Saddle Your Worries To The Wind” or Glenn & Tim Spencer’s “So Long To The Red River Valley,” both offered here. If any Sons of the Pioneers comparisons will be drawn, that’s where it will happen. The great news is The Tumbling Tumbleweeds don’t sound like the SOPs. Or Riders in the Sky, or Sons of the San Joaquin. They sound 100% like The Tumbling Tumbleweeds… and that, folks, is simply wonderful! Ten songs, eleven tracks total.

CD: $16 plus $2 s/h through www.TheTumblingTumbleweeds.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

West Of The 98th Meridian
Allan Chapman

Allan Chapman is also known as “Hoot Al” when serving on doghouse bass and vocals with The Texas Trailhands. But maybe with his second fine solo release we can finally stop stating that qualifier (as we were able to with “the Diamond W Wranglers who used to be the Prairie Rose Wranglers”)! He certainly has earned stand-alone status.

Chapman has an authoritative, controlled baritone delivery that sells his material very well. As with his first solo collection, his original songs (nine this time) are deeply connected to his Texas family history. His “Smoke Of The Brandin’ Fire” is also covered on co-writer Jim Jones’ new release. It’s a portrait of a cowboy who gives up a lot for his cowboyin’ passion. The waltz “Stars Over Benjamin” is his tribute to his hometown. The saga song “Medianoche” will almost surely be picked up by others, as will “West Texas 1949” and “Drovers Trail”…oh, heck! It’s true of the majority of these works.

Cover songs in the collection are Michael Stevens & Ann Ekstrom’s “Saguaro,” Jon Messenger’s “Pony Dance” and Chapman’s arrangement of “Rank Stranger.”

West Of The 98^th Meridian is a worthy follow-up to Allen Chapman’s first solo CD. It is thoughtfully produced and rendered, making it superior fare. Twelve tracks total.

CDs: $17 ppd through allanchapman@earthlink.net; www.allanchapman.net

© 2010, Rick Huff

Back In The Swing
Jimmy Burson

We are fortunate to have so many of the “class acts” still actively releasing Western Swing to keep the flame alive and to pass the torch. Jimmy Burson is just such an “act” and he is doing that on this CD by showing his stuff and using some top young talent to back him amidst the classic top talent.

On this new release the deep honey vocals of Burson are nicely propelled by the talents of Snuffy Elmore (fiddle, mandolin, rhythm guitar); Gary Carpenter (steel), Wayne Glasson (keyboard); Greg Hardy (drums); Jake Hooker (bass); Tommy Nash (acoustic & electric guitar) and Rich O’Brien (resonator guitar). Along with the swing standards you’d expect like “You’re From Texas,” “Rosetta” or “There’s Not A Cow In Texas” come dance ballad treatments of songs like “Marie,” “Mona Lisa” and “Pennies From Heaven.” And there are nice surprises, like Burson’s own Western waltz “Bud’s Song” (“Give me 50 more years, a new life to begin and I’d cowboy all over again!”) Anyone doubt that one will be picked up by others??

Back In The Swing is a fine little CD you can dance to all the way. Put it in your deck and grab somebody you love. Thirteen tracks total.

CD: $17.50 ppd from Jimmy Burson, PO Box 195, Silverton, TX 79257. The email is txintheswing@midplains.coop

© 2010, Rick Huff

Best Of The Early Years 1990-1995
The Lobo Rangers

As I listened to this great retrospective of one of THE seminal groups for the contemporary Western movement, the memories flooded back. I felt more like writing an article or commentary than a review, and I hope this doesn’t turn into one! For the many who also will remember the distinctive, mellow blend of Lobo Rangers Dave & Patty Bourne, Michael Fleming and Billy Beeman with additional musical support from his brother Bob and Don Richmond, this collection will provide a welcome journey back.

Another word besides seminal to use in describing the Lobo Rangers might be transitional. Through the great Billy Beeman and brother Bob there are ties back to Knott’s Berry Farm’s wonderful Wagonmasters, one of the few groups to keep the Cowboy Music candle burning through the “dark ages” between the end of the B-Western singing cowboys and Rex Allen, Jr.’s “Can You Hear Those Pioneers?,” having performed over 10,000 shows at the park! Dave Bourne also played the Berry Farm, and became known as a top saloon piano interpreter showing up on TV’s Deadwood and many other venues. He also founded and wrote the Western Music Association’s newsletter that morphed into the Western Way magazine! Michael Fleming co-created the group New West and eventually became “El Jefe” of the Santa Clarita festival.

There are songs in the collection that feature brave and forthright lyrics from Billy Beeman, such as “Red Man”; the first awarded WMA Song of the Year, “Below The Kinney Rim”; “Sometimes This Ol’ Cowboy Gets The Blues” (one of the first times modern Western fans heard blues and jazz blended with their beloved Cowboy stuff); and many more reasons to make this CD yours. So…make it yours!

CD: $17 ppd available exclusively through www.saloonpiano.com or directly from Dave Bourne, PO Box 173, Agoura Hills, CA 91376-0173.

© 2010, Rick Huff

LIVE On The Tonight Show/Public Television Double DVD
Baxter Black

That’s not the real name of it, but whatever it may be, they have won the “Title I Can’t Fit Onto One Line
Award!” The front says Double DVD Baxter Black Live On The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson & On Iowa Public Television while the spine of the package says Baxter Black’s Double DVD: LIVE On Public TV Plus Baxter On The Tonight Show. But you get the idea. With this video release, you’re seein’ two of him!

On the Tonight Show disc you’ll be pleased to find not only all of the appearances Baxter made on the venerable program through the Carson years (plus one appearance with the substitute host Jay Leno) but also a spritely behind-the-scenes discussion with Baxter, the Western Folklife Center’s Hal Cannon, and the former producer of the Tonight Show Jeff Sotzing (Carson’s nephew). Not only are the Carson appearances themselves a riot, but the chatty insider look at things is fascinating and funny. The second disc, featuring performances from his Iowa Public Television programs, contains famous bits you’ve seen Baxter do and want to see again as well as likely many you have not seen and will still want to see again.

Summed up, the collection reaffirms what a treasure and an absolute master performer we have in Baxter Black.

2 DVD Set: $24.95 plus $2.75 s/h from Coyote Cowboy Company, PO Box 2190, Benson, AZ 85602 or through www.coyotecowboycompany.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

The Last Desperado
Chance Carter

The first thing that might draw your attention to Utah’s Chance Carter is the solid and seasoned bass/baritone voice that emanates from someone with such a youthful, nearly boyish appearance. But beyond that he also has some worthy things to say with that versatile voice.

Carter’s new release features ten tracks that showcase his rangy balladeer style to good effect. The 2010 WMA Award-winning Mary Kaye contributes some background vocal work (“My Rifle My Pony & Me” and Carter’s own terrific song “Ramblin’ Man”). His creations and cover versions include folkish Western (his “On My Way Home”); Country (his “Life Of Sin,” Johnny Cash’s “Give My Love To Rose.” and Don Williams’ “My Best Friend”) and outright cowboy (his title track “The Last Desperado,” Charlie Daniels’ “Billy The Kid,” and Chris LeDoux’s “He Rides The Wild Horses,” for example).

Chance Carter’s vocal range along with his musical and interpretive ability gives him an interesting set of tools with which to entertain. Give him a spin.

CD: $15 plus $5 s/h from Chance Carter, PO Box 795, Moab, UT 84532

© 2010, Rick Huff

Morning Coffee
Richard Martin

Richard Martin has upped the ante quite a bit with his second CD release, both in production quality and in packaging.

Much of his approach is as direct as the title of his album’s title track. “Morning Coffee” will make you smell breakfast. “Ballad Of Tom Horn” tells about one of New Mexico’s dubious gifts to Western history who likely did enough to get hanged but got hanged for something else; “Willow Creek” is about, well, Willow Creek…; and “Wet Saddle”…you get the idea.

Martin puts a little Country in as well (“That’s Where The Ending Began”) and in one song (“Monarch Butterfly”) he equates his own instinctual pulls to the mysterious migration of delicate insects (“something tells me I’ll be back…”).

Richard Martin is a new voice on the scene and has already garnered attention from the New Mexico Music Awards (“Bluegrass Song of the Year”). In the future it may prove interesting to watch which trails he picks to travel. Twelve tracks total.

CD: $15 for the album, $14 for MP3 download and 99 cents per song download through www.cdbaby.com and other online sources.

© 2010, Rick Huff

The Eyes of a Cowboy
J Parson

When I read in J (for “John”) Parson’s cover note that Colorado deejay Barb Richhart suggested he send along the CD, I suspected this would be a good ’n. Barb and I were both right! Parson’s vocal style reminds me tonally of perhaps a Lloyd Perryman or Glenn Yarborough but with the vocal phrasing of a Waylon Jennings. The effect? He puts a business end on a pretty sound.

The CD’s fine title track, “The Eyes Of A Cowboy,” has attitude (“Through the eyes of a cowboy he sees the world…and he might not be right, but he damn well is sure…”). The themes of the songs may be familiar (“Early Morning Light,” “Two Days From Nowhere,” “Blue Mountain Home”…) but Parson gives each of them a good fresh spin. Many of his tracks are nicely danceable (a comment prompted as my own lady began to joyfully dance in place as I was tracking his song “Bridgeport”). Of course there also is “Come Ride With Me,” a near cavalry march!

An exceptional original cowboy song here is “He Wore A Blue Bandana.” It deals with the effect of one heckuva campfire singer and could stand as a perfect anthem for spellbinding Western entertainers everywhere. J Parson is definitely a performer worthy of your time and consideration. Twelve tracks total.

CD - $17.50 USD ppd through www.jparson.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Western Wordsmith
Susie Knight

Not since Peggy Malone came onto the scene have we heard such a belter of Western songs! Whether it’s with her energetic poetry or her rowdy buckaroo gal big voice music, rest assured Susie Knight is out to get your attention! She’s also a professional clown with two different characters (“Watoosie” & “Yee Ha The Cowpoke”) and a storyteller as “Lasso The Cowgirl!”

Originating from Duke Davis’ Rockin’ Double D Productions, this CD also benefits from strong players like Ernie Martinez (dobro & mandolin), Jody Adams (fiddle & banjo), Jimmy Lee Robbins (acoustic guitar & background vocals) and Davis himself (acoustic guitar & acoustic stand up bass). Knight’s poetry is effectively supported with music ranging from swing to introspective ballad.

Knight is a relative newcomer to Western music. She brings enthusiasm and theatricality to the task that reminds me of a certain style of Broadway musical delivery. Her delivery certainly could never be called “lulling” but, like Ethel Merman’s, it’s safe to say it’s not intended to be!

Seventeen tracks total (6 songs and 11 poems).

CD: $15 plus $3 s/h from Susie Knight, 7377 S. Brook Forest Rd., Evergreen, CO 80439; www.cowpokesandclowns.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Cowboy
Richard Olsen

Here’s a performer who obviously invests his material with heart. Now if he gets to where he can invest the production aspect with cash, he’ll be on his way.

Richard Olsen’s CD is simply called Cowboy and pictures his father, rather than himself, on the cover. In fact Olsen’s name appears absolutely nowhere on the cover, spine or outer liner of the album. Certainly some performers in our genre tend to not promote themselves ahead of the music, but I mean, really.

Olsen is joined by Jeni Morris on fiddle, Brent Drelling on pedal steel and Kurt Argyle playing bass as Olsen handles vocals, lead and rhythm guitar and strumstick duties. From among the Country tracks here I’d pick “Dedicated To Love You.” The Western pick for my ear is “One Eyed Blue Roan Stud,” a saga song about a mustang that as a colt had a rough start and a close call with a mountain lion.

Something about Olsen’s vocals reminds me a bit of Earl Gleason. His delivery is pleasant and, as we said earlier, heartfelt. But he needs to get a producer who knows the genre and save up a bit or get an underwriting executive producer to help him put out his next album. We’ll be watchin’ for it!

CD: $10 plus $2 s/h from Richard Olsen, 4430 So. 6700 W., Hooper, UT 84315

© 2010, Rick Huff

Cow Chasin' Words
R. L. "Slim" Hawk

Canadian performer R.L. “Slim” Hawk has a sound to his voice that made me suspect he may have done some professional broadcasting or commercial voice work. That was confirmed when I read his list of thanks. It’s an interesting contradiction when compared to his rangy appearance on the CD cover!

He’s got some reasonable cowboy and outdoorsman credentials, though. He was raised on a small South Dakota cattle ranch, he has trapped, logged, kept bees and more. Now he’s turned to the cattle ranching again. And cowboy poetry, of course…

Hawk briefly presents the contexts of the poems before rendering them. His delivery is dramatically acted-out and his subjects include inflated speculation (“Coffee Shop Talk”), wrecks (“More Lives Than A Tom Cat” and “Pete’s Wreck”), indelicate language from an unexpected source (“Cow Chasin’ Words”), school kid misadventures (“Country School”), the pleasant effect of female voices (“Women Don’t Just Talk”), knights of the road (“hoboes”) and he gets some mileage out of fossil fuels (“Outa Gas”). Twenty-one tracks total.

R.L. “Slim” Hawk puts a little bit different spin on his works than some cowboy poets seem to do, but it’s valid all the same. The poems are supported with music from Tom Devries.

CD: $16 postpaid US or Canadian check or money order from Slim Hawk, Box 117, Beauvallon, Alberta Canada T0B 0K0.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Texas To A T
The Ball Family

Here is just about as fine a Western Swing CD as you will likely encounter. Tightly produced, with spritely arrangements!

The Ball Family, including papa Gary, mama Sue and daughter Sherry Ball Luster, has long been known as one of the consummate family singing groups of the Western genre. Their harmony is intricate perfection. On this album their all-Texas-themed song choices might be described that way as well.

The family’s original songs (penned by Sue) are winners, including the title track “(That’s What I Call) Texas To A ‘T’,” “Texas In My Soul” and “Happiness Is Texas.” Among the covers are John D. Loudermilk’s popular reworking of “Abilene” (the family’s home base), Cindy Walker’s “Miss Molly” and “You’re From Texas,” June Hershey & Don Swander’s “Deep In The Heart Of Texas,” Tommy Camfield & Diane Johnston’s “Miles & Miles Of Texas,” and three more equally famous Texas swingers.

So much is so right about this album it’s hard to know where to begin, but I do know where to end. If you’re a Western Swing fan get it, get it, get it!

CD: $15 through www.backfortybunkhouse.com; www.theballranch.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Rndnmup
T.J. Casey & Jim Reader

That CD name is actually pronounced “roundin’ 'em up” for those who don’t speak License Plate.

First of all, I have to admit I’m pretty much an unabashed Jim Reader fan. By and large this Canadian cowboy singer/songwriter’s thoughtful quirky creations represent some of the most consistently fresh material found anywhere. And this CD also showcases some of the finest material Montana’s T.J. Casey has yet produced, so for fans of both performers this one has to be a treat.

Four of the collaborative efforts on the album are among the strongest tracks. “Get Them Cattle 'Cross” about a trail boss who gives his all; “King Up In My Saddle,” “Grubline” and a new set closer “Adios My Compadres” are winners by any criteria you’d care to use. Individual creations that shine include Casey’s “Swingin’ My Way Home To You” and Reader’s “Gone Are The Days,” a song that made me actually shout out loud “Hot D!!! What a song!” Twelve tracks total, including new covers of Reader’s “We Got Us A Trail Drive” and “The Frontier.”

Give these ropers a spin!

CD: $13.99 plus $2.75 s/h through www.tjcasey.net. For those preferring the direct approach, try TJ Casey, Cowboy Enterprises, Inc., PO Box 31676, Billingas, MT 59107 or Jim Reader, Pond Valley Farms, Ltd., Box 22, Aldersyde AB, Canada T0L 0A0.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Memories Of TV Westerns
Les Gilliam

From the outset I figured this is one Les Gilliam did for the fun of it. And that feeling fairly bubbles out of this nostalgic release.

The ol’ Oklahoma Balladeer couldn’t have picked a better bunch of folks to do it with him. Jim Farrell’s production savvy and the performing skills of the Diamond W Wranglers and friends create a loving and full sound for these vintage Western TV themes. It lets you appreciate them for their musicality. That’s when you realize some like Stan Jones’ “Cheyenne” or Buttolph & Webster’s “Maverick” can stand well on their own merits as songs. You also find why the lyrics of “Bonanza” were wisely dropped after the airing of its pilot episode!

Themes covered in the collection also include “Ballad Of Paladin,” “Sugarfoot,” “The Rebel,” “Bat Masterson,” “Wyatt Earp,” “Back In The Saddle” (ok, Gene used it on TV), “Happy Trails” (although written for Roy & Dale’s radio show, it too was on the home screen), “Rawhide” and “Gunsmoke.” On that one, out comes my soapbox. Ever since Tex Ritter first stuffed the word “gunsmoke” onto a musical phrase that didn’t fit, singers have tried to make it “Gunsmoke Trails!” Don Edwards came close to making it work but please, people! The original is “Old Trails.” Ken Curtis & The Top Hands did it years before he became Festus. It works so much better, and “Gunsmoke” still gets its mention in the verse. Ok, back to business.

Les Gilliams’ Memories Of TV Westerns is a joy! Pick it up and put a smile on your memory cells.

CD: $17 ppd from Eagle Enterprises, PO Box 350, Ponca City, OK 74602; www.lesgilliam.com.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Sulphur River
Art Anthony

I had said that I was not going to review novels or biographies as there is too much time investment required to cover them properly. But I have to admit author Art Anthony and Tate Publishing made it much easier with both printed and audio versions of Sulphur River and a plot synopsis to boot. So, an exception has been made!

Anthony has created a story set in the mid 1860s, at the time of the Civil War’s Red River Campaign. It follows two boys rapidly becoming men as they work to become successful with cotton, cattle and horses amid the chaos of the crumbling Confederacy. In their way are army deserters, a crooked attorney (like that could ever happen!) and the danger they might shoot themselves in the foot by doing and saying wrong things at wrong times. As the storyteller, Anthony paints a clear and well researched picture of how things got done on a day-to-day basis in those most trying times. He doesn’t offer many physical descriptions of his people or reveal insights into their emotions. As the reader, I have to say I felt somewhat held at arm’s length from the action due to that and through Anthony’s tendency to tell what was said rather than having his characters say it and live it spontaneously. But it’s a style. I’ve seen it employed before.

The audio book (on 6 CDs performed by Andy Holcomb) may assist with the storytelling feel of Sulphur River. History buffs will likely find enough meat in the reportage to keep them chewing on the tale. 316 pages.

Book (softcover) $22.99 (Audio Book $29.99) plus $2.75 s/h or $13.99 ebook digital download from Tate Publishing & Enterprises www.tatepublishing.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Let 'Er Go Let 'Er Buck Let 'Er Fly
Juni Fisher

Subtitled “A Roundup To Remember,” Juni Fisher’s newest release is in tribute to the lore, legends and spirit of the Pendleton Roundup, which is celebrating its century mark of rodeoing in 2010. As with all her releases, this one is tightly produced and carefully thought out.

Pendleton’s lady bronc riders are saluted in the title track. Nez Perce champion “Jackson Sundown” is honored, as are rodeo and stuntman “Yakima” Canutt and others. There’s the haunting story of “Bonnie McCarroll” (done in on her last ride by a bureaucratic decision…her ghost now wondering why they won’t let her ride even though she hasn’t aged) and a strongly moving look at the ignominious death of an early overlooked rodeo great in “When I Was Prairie Rose.” Juni and one of her actual “Cowgirlfriends” Patti Clayton render one of the best “with friends like you who needs enemas” novelties since Auntie Mame and Vera Charles delivered “Bosom Buddies” in Mame!And Juni once again gives voice to the voiceless in songs such as Ian Tyson’s “The Ambler Saddle” and her own “Snubbin’ Horse (Not For Me).”

To close out the collection there’s “Round-up To Remember,” a Celtic-laced sing-along that’s suitable for jingle use. Begorrah, the lass thinks of everything!

CD: $15 ppd from Juni Fisher, 2105 Granville Rd., Franklin, TN 37064 or online through www.junifisher.net (3 for $40, 5 for $60, she hastens to add)!

© 2010, Rick Huff

Women of the West
Sam DeLeeuw

Half the time on this CD Sam’s last name is spelled with a small “L,” including on the cover! And though they also may not be able to trust the track numbering as printed on this CD’s tray card notes, fans can once again trust the pen and tongue of Utah poet Sam DeLeeuw to paint ‘er true!

The collection’s title track is a strong and, for the women involved, vindicating portrait of social trials, rumors and hardships that often befell them. DeLeeuw reminds us they didn’t fall under that weight. In other verse she delves into Old (and current) West stuff they’ve breathed, sheathed and sometimes heaved along with the men. If you’re going to truthfully tell the tale, occasionally the ‘tale’ will have road apple matted in it. The feint of gut may not want to be eating while listening to a number of these tomes!

Besides the previously mentioned title track, other offerings include “Leave Well Enough Alone” and “Hilda’s Delivery” (with DeLeeuw’s popular alter ego), the sensitive “Cry,” the cowhand reality check “Tools Of The Trade” and the handoff from generation to generation DeLeeuw calls “Take The Lead.” Twenty originals and two others (DeLeeuw also renders “Quiet Old Cowboy” from the pen of Bill Barwick and “The Heart Ain’t Always Home” written specifically for her by Brian Arnold).

DeLeeuw’s Women Of The West is the follow-up mix of humor and heart her fans expect.

CD: $15 + $3 s/h from Sam DeLeeuw, 5579 So 2800 West #B, Roy, UT 84067

© 2010, Rick Huff

Swing Me a Song
Chuck Cusimano

The year was 1997. Singer/songwriter and cowboy Chuck Cusimano gathered a team of superior players and herded them into a Colorado studio to record a dream album of Chuck’s original Western Swing and Honky Tonk songs. Think it was all smooth sailing? In your dreams!!

Oh the musicians did just what was expected of them. Joe Stephenson (of Flying W Wranglers fame) and Floyd "Asleep At The Wheel" Domino laid down their respective masterful fiddle and keyboard tracks. Ditto Ernie Martinez (steel guitar); Stan Lark, Ken Campion & Jeff Davis on bass; Cusimano and engineer Kenny Penny (guitars) and Billy English on drums with Teresa Vensor providing harmony vocals with Chuck. But then maybe money ran short or time ran long! At any rate, the project never received its final mastering. Now, at the urging of those who’ve listened to the closeted recording and since the master recording may have gone the way of the dodo, Chuck Cusimano is presenting his long unfinished album’s "rough" mix. Yeah, some of the precision of the work is blurred a bit in reverb or an occasional passage is backed off in volume more than might be desired, but it’s the kind of thing the techies quibble over. Most listeners would tell them “shut up, drink your beers and let us hear the music!” Happily, Chuck has at least done the last part!

Some of the songs have been heard being covered by others, such as “You Ain’t Here To Hear Me Say Goodbye” or “Please Sing ‘Silver Wings’ Again.“ Others will now be picked up by artists. There are ten songs presented here. Yes, we can tell what it could have been, but trust me when I tell you what it is! Definitely worth the investment!

CD: $20 ppd to Cusimusico, 1608 Ross Ln., Springtown, TX 76082 or through www.cdbaby.com, www.buckatune.net or www.chuckcusimano.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Buckaroo Bluegrass II
Michael Martin Murphey

Michael Martin Murphey continues his exploration into fiery and inspired bluegrass treatments of some of his own classics, newer tracks and one of Tompall and Jim Glaser’s originals as well (“Running Gun” done with Audie Blaylock).

If the album’s opening track doesn’t light your wick, your candle’s done burned out! “Blue Sky Riding Song” gets the full-bore treatment of some of the top bluegrass session pickers on earth! “Backslider’s Wine” is a Blues-Grass masterpiece. Murphey’s “Rollin’ Nowhere” swings joyfully and wait 'til you hear “Cosmic Cowboy” and (are you ready for it )”Wildfire” handled with acoustic panache! Other tracks include “Southwestern Pilgrimage,” “Medicine Man,” “Desert Rat,” “Running Blood,” “Renegade” and “Swans Against The Sun.”

Using any barometer you’d care to, this album and its predecessor Volume I are simply outstanding products. In concept and execution, they are flawless.

CD: $15.98 through www.michaelmartinmurpheymusic.com and generally available in retail outlets and other online sources.

© 2010, Rick Huff

When I Was a Cowgirl
Barbara Nelson

Oregon jazzy Western swinger Barbara Nelson continues her pattern of adding one new instrument per CD. This time a harmonica shows up!

The principal feature of the Nelson releases is her rich, big band style of singing, progressive jazz guitar and the general swing of the thing. nce again she gives her crowd exactly what they want in her versions of Leadbelly’s “When I Was A Cowgirl Out On The Western Plain” (his ‘yicki-yicki’ becomes ‘yippee-yippee’), “Along The Santa Fe Trail,” “When It’s Roundup Time In Texas” and other Western standards. Interestingly Joyce Woodson’s award-winning “If I Hadn’t Seen The West” is also here and is treated well.

Some of the non-Western standards present include “God Bless The Child,” “Moon River,” Sunny Side Of The Street, “Skylark” and “Swingin’ On A Star.” Fifteen tracks total.

Barbara reports she has been invited to perform at "Elko" this year! Brace yourselves, folks! You’ve got a treat comin’ your way!

CD: $15 ppd from Barbara Nelson, 72521 Tutuilla Creek Rd., Pendleton, OR 97801; www.barbaranelsonmusic.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Chrome on the Range
Michael Hurwitz & the Aimless Drifters

Juni Fisher first alerted me to his existence. Packing up from a house concert we hosted, she said “Have you ever gotten any CDs from Michael Hurwitz?” “Michael Who-witz??” She then sent some older releases to me, and ever since I’ve been itching for a new one to come along to review. Finally my itch got scratched!!

Songwriter and performer Michael Hurwitz is one of those artists who can be counted on to offer a unique angle on whatever he’s portraying. With comfy down-home gravel he tells you about “Roy Rogers In Japan” (winning hearts quite close behind the atomic bombs). He describes the wild and wooly young'un whirling into an adult with one succinctly strong image…”He’s A Rodeo!” He can give you one heck of a different “Love Song,” a neat Western saga song in “Ed Trafton,” or he can just Western Swing ya some with “Your Dancin’ Shoes.” Tracy Nelson joins Hurwitz on two songs: “Out Of The Frying Pan” (another good swinger) and “Cowboys Gone Wild.” And Gary McMahan heard Hurwitz playin’ his “Real Live Buckaroo” and sat in to offer his two cents! Fourteen tracks total.

Michael Hurwitz is one of those discoveries one heck of a lot more people need to make. If you doubt me, just ask Juni!

CDs: $15 + $2 s/h through www.mikehurwitz.com or www.cdbaby.com and directly from Meadowlark Records, 415 Targhee Towne Road, Alta, WY 83414.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Northern Range
Larry Krause

Here’s the newest from a very strong Canadian singer. Larry Krause’s solid baritone allows him to deliver his songs, both Western and Country, with authority.

Six of the songs are Krause originals. The CD starts off with one of them, a pick track “Shortest Day Of The Year” (about ranching travails taking a toll on a relationship). Two others are “Years Flyin’ By” (the other side of that "relationship" coin) and “Footprints In The Moss” (a Canadian history and heritage trail song).

Cover songs on the album include a nice take of Ian Tyson’s “My Own Heart’s Delight,” Jim Loree’s “Herchel’s Hemi Half Ton,” Wilf Ingersoll’s “Silver Buckles” and Harold & Don Reid’s “There Is You.” The eight solid musicians who back Krause on the project earned their session pay. Ten tracks total.

From the technical standpoint, I think the CD’s recording or mastering engineers compressed the sound a bit much. For my ear—an ear that has done a good deal of session mastering, incidentally—Krause’s performances would benefit additionally from a little “air” around the sound, but it’s not a serious deal breaker here.

CD: www.larrykrause.ca

© 2010, Rick Huff

Live at Pearls
Jerry Webb

Incoming! A DVD/CD set from the popular Texas honky tonker and songwriter Jerry Webb!

Vocally Webb has always struck me as residing in Johnny Bush’s neighborhood, which certainly isn’t a bad thing! This live performance was done in the wonderful rowdy Pearls Dance Hall & Saloon in the Fort Worth Stockyards. The atmosphere is perfectly captured here, from the crowd roaring its approval to the interaction of musicians in the moment to…could that be a faint stale beer smell issuing from the CD player?! Add the visual element of the DVD and the effect is complete.

Webb and his top-drawer band make this his best release yet. Terrific energy and fun come across in standards such as Harlan Howard’s “Another Bridge To Burn,” Faron Young’s “Wine Me Up,” Mel Tillis’ “Heart Over Mind,” Hank Cochran’s “Don’t You Ever Get Tired,” the obligatory “Milk Cow Blues” and you can certainly draw your own vocal comparison on Webb’s take of Johnny Bush’s “Whiskey River.” Mixed in among the remaining fine covers are five Webb originals: "Wall To Wall,” “Red Lips,” “Party List,” “Turn To The Wine” and “Tonight I’m Drinking It Over.” Eighteen tracks total.

When the house lights come on and the smoke clears Jerry Webb is also a professional architect! In this release he has definitely built something special.

DVD/CD: www.jerrywebbmusic.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Cowboys in Heaven
Arden Gailey

It’s home done with some multi-tracked synthesized guitars and string accompaniment along with the acoustic parts, but if you don’t happen to have big bucks and pick like Gary Cook but the heart is there, what’s a feller to do?!

Arden Gailey’s release shows heart and enthusiasm for his material. He is a senior performer who has very likely been at this music a while. There is an unmistakable sincerity here. Gailey mixes in some Country standards with his cowboy, such as “Paper Roses,” “I’ll Never Find Another You” or “Take Me Home Country Roads” but most of the songs are from the Western catalog. They include Michael Burton’s often covered “Night Rider’s Lament,” Kay Arnold’s “Cross The Brazos At Waco,” Marty Robbins’ “El Paso” and “The Master’s Call,” Gary McMahan’s “Old Double Diamond” and Jaybo Dean’s “Cowboys In Heaven.” Interestingly Donnie Blanz’s “Taking Pictures With My Heart” also found its way into this collection.

Likely this CD is a reasonable representation of Gailey’s live performance and will provide a souvenir for his audience to take home with them.

CDs: www.ardengailey.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Eyes on the Skyline
Camilla O'Neal

Camilla O’Neal certainly possesses a solid and natural Country delivery of her original material on this new release. O’Neal is a ranch-raised girl from the Jackson Hole, Wyoming area, so she likely comes by her music orientation naturally as well!

The support for her Country and her Western songs (both are here) consists of a group that is rather bar band-ish in its approach, and the mix feels as if most of the tracks might have been laid down live in one pass. That’s not specifically a criticism, just an observation. The pick Country track is “High & Dry,” a medium slow waltz with an interesting arrhythmic chorus. The Western pick is “She Rides Wild Horses,” another waltz (as it happens). Stylistically the tracks run from beat driven (“Your Country Love Song”) to ballad (“Wind River Love”), and it’s definitely her delivery that best helps sell the songs in this collection. Twelve tracks total.

CD: $20 postpaid; www.camillaoneal.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

The BAR-D Roundup
Various artists

The landmark cowboy poetry series that bears The Bar-D Roundup brand welcomes a new CD into its ranks! And of course Volume Five won’t spend any more time languishing on a library shelf than do the other volumes. It too is destined to be played and played and played, just like the others!

What is so striking about the annual Bar-D Roundup releases is they represent the absolute best of what’s being written and performed today and what has been done in the past. And each time there is a special "surprise" performance. This time it’s the legendary Badger Clark himself, introducing and reading his famous (but too often not credited) poem, “A Cowboy’s Prayer.”

On the CD cover is a 1940s vintage photo of the beloved poet Georgie Sicking, still working and represented with her poem “Be Yourself.” Joining her in Volume Five we find the most renowned cowboy poets working today. People such as Joel Nelson (“Awakenings”), Jay Snider (“Rainy Day Prayer”) Waddie Mitchell (“No Second Chance”) and Red Steagall (“The Fence That Me and Shorty Built”) are here. Comical views from the likes of Pat Richardson (“The Confession”), Yvonne Hollenbeck (“The Ranch Rig”), D. W. Groethe (“The Night Ol’ Flukie Foundered”) and Rodney Nelson (“Good Clean Fun”) make for yet another welcome element. Top reciters are here in force, such as Jerry "Brooksie" Brooks (Badger Clark’s “Legend Of Boastful Bill”), Randy Rieman (with Clark’s “The Married Man”), Linda Kirkpatrick (delivering Bruce Kiskaddon’s “Creak Of The Leather”) or Jim Thompson (with S. Omar Barker’s “He’ll Do”). There are sweet nods back, with the late Larry McWhorter’s “Waitin’ On The Drive” and Buck Ramsey continuing the installments from his epic Grass. And it’s always great to hear Andy Nelson, Ken Cook, Chris Isaacs, Doris Daley…and by now I think surely you must be getting the point!

The Bar-D Roundup CDs are a must have for fans of Cowboy Poetry and a should have for most everybody else!

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

© 2010, Rick Huff

Sorting Time
Yvonne Hollenbeck

I suppose you could say the much-awarded Yvonne Hollenbeck might be the Erma Bombeck of Cowboy Poetry. It’s a “beck” thing, maybe…

In her new collection Sorting Time she’s separating the culls and taking the prime stock to market once again. Audiences consistently recognize the deep, humorous and ironic truth in her verses about ranch life as seen by a ranch wife. Her droll delivery of the material makes it all work just that much better.

Poems found here include some she had already begun to turn into favorites by first trying them out on the circuit. “The Rancher’s Top Ten List” sure as heck includes stuff Letterman would never tackle, “The Making Of A Cowboy” answers the question “who’s in charge here,” “Woman’s Worst Fear” is certainly her bear to cross and the “Junk Food Bachelor” makes sure to eat from each of the major junk food groups although his wife had left the good stuff for him in the fridge.

Two of the verses here show Hollenbeck at her reflective best…the double edge portrait of “The Auction” and the simple sweet memory brought forth in “The Ranch Wife’s Best Gift” to close the collection. It’s as homespun and familiar as a quilt. Fourteen poems total.

CDs: $15 ppd from Yvonne Hollenbeck, 30549 291st St., Clearfield, SD 57580. Email geetwo@gwtc.net or phone (605) 557-3559.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Cookin' with Carolyn
Carolyn Martin

She caught me good with the novelty opening to this CD…a faux cooking show jingle from Jeff Taylor! They purposely styled a dopey little 1950s housewifey thing, then you’re blindsided when track two “That’s What I Call Cookin’” starts to swing and sizzle like it does!

Carolyn Martin has earned respect and many kudos from the top swing and honky tonk folks working today. Listening to this you will immediately appreciate why that would be true. She moves flawlessly from Western Swing (“People Will Say We’re In Love”) into WW2 ballad style (“Dream” with Riders In The Sky), from heartfelt pop blues (“Skillet Blues” and “Nothing Better To Do”) to novelty swing (“If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked A Cake”) and Jive (“Straighten Up And Fly Right”).

Her backup on this album comes from fourteen of the best musicians you could ever want to have handling these chores. That is particularly evident on a Paul Kramer original, the hot jazz showpiece “It’s All About You” and a fiery fast spin of the classic “Columbus Stockade Blues!”

Cookin’ With Carolyn is simply a terrific CD, showcasing the formidable talents of all involved. They’ve truly cooked up a little wonder for you here. I’m betting dancers in particular will love it. You know what they say…nothin’ says lovin’ like something from the oven…

CD: $17.50 ppd from Carolyn Martin, PO Box 274, Joelton, TN 37080 and online through www.cdbaby.com or www.carolynmartinmusic.com.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Shoulder to Shoulder
Jerry A. Brooks

Like the great Georgie Sicking, Jerry Brooks is one lady who has actually done much of the toughest work “shoulder to shoulder” with the guys. Georgie, at the branding fire, and "Brooksie," in the mines. Unlike Ms. Sicking, "Brooksie" doesn’t write her own verse. Instead she is an exceedingly capable interpreter of the words of cowboy poets. In fact, as this CD will prove to you, she is not only one of the best natural reciters around today…she may well be one of the best ever!

"Brooksie" brings a calmly gutty authenticity to the poems she delivers like few artists you will encounter. She unswervingly lets you hear even the more familiar works for the first time. On this CD she told me the story of “The Walking Man” through her rendering of the Henry Herbert Knibbs classic. As she neared that point in it of sad betrayal, I began to feel a strong sense of dread, fearing she would actually make me cry. She did.

There is a wider than usual source base for poems on the album. Some examples: Katherine Fall Pettey’s “Morning On The Desert,” Henry Lawson’s “The Wanderlight,” "Breaker" Morant’s “Who’s Riding Brown Harlequin Now,” "Banjo" Paterson’s “In The Droving Days,” and Andy Wilkinson’s “Saddlin’ Up Time.” Plus she gives us wonderful versions of Badger Clark’s “The Free Wind” and “The Old Prospector”; Bruce Kiskaddon’s “When They’ve Finished Shipping Cattle in the Fall”; Buck Ramsey’s “Anthem”; and two more Knibbs greats, ”The Shallows of the Ford” and “A Bronco Shod With Wings.” From this last poem she omits a stanza, but offers it in her salty album notes as proof of its superfluous character, saying of the edit, “Forgive me! Or don’t!”

If you really want to experience how it should be done, here’s your chance. Jerry Brooks and her CD are treasures.

CD: $12 plus $3 s/h (for additional copies in the mailing add the purchase price plus $1 per copy) to Jerry A. Brooks, 4845 W. Clear Creek Canyon Rd., Sevier, UT 84766.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Long Ways from Home
by Andy Wilkinson and Andy Hedges

You had best be ready to get involved with this CD. If you don’t give yourself up willingly, this stuff just may come to get you.

Andy Wilkinson has long proven himself to be uncompromising, to the delight of his appreciative audience, and more recently through their collaborations, Andy Hedges is proving to be an heir apparent.

As the lyrics of their new CD Long Ways from Home go in search of it, they can shoot you between the eyes. In “Gideon’s Song,” that home certainly isn’t on Music Row. There’s a jolly final home for a corpse in the ocean in “Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me” and then there’s “Mole In The Ground!” Leadbelly’s infectious “Boll Weevil” is lookin’ for a home and finds several. There are deceptively sweet gut punches such as “Tell Me How (To Love Someone Who Prays For Me).” And the CD closes out with a Wilkinson affirmation that somewhere “There’s A Home For Me.”

Easy? Nope. Worth it?? You betcha!!

CDs: $15.88 ppd through www.yellowhousemusic.com or through iTunes and cdbaby.com.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Voices from the Range
by Almeda Terry

For her debut CD, smooth voiced balladeer Almeda Terry has made a very interesting choice. Interesting from a number of angles!

In what became a two-year labor of love, Ms. Terry has put original melodies to the verse of the late Canadian cowboy poet Rhoda Sivell and in so doing has created some fine new Western songs. To honor this sort of work was the original intent of a former WMA Awards category set up a few years back.

The CD title comes from Rhoda Sivell’s book of poems of that name published in 1912. Ms. Terry felt Ms. Sivell’s “sensitivity to the music of unshod feet” lent her poetry well to having melodies applied, and both listeners and performers will be the winners for that vision. Here we have a noteworthy debut performance and an introduction to good new songs that might be covered by other artists in the future.

Favorites of mine include the CD opener “Come With Me to the Old Range,” “They Keep A-Stealing On You in the Night,” “Our Last Ride,” and “Everyday,” but I’m sure you will find your own to like. . In addition to Ms.Terry’s performance (lead and harmony vocals, lead and rhythm guitar) there are nice production values and solid support from Chris Cunningham (harmony, accordion, and harmonica), Britt Smith (bass, violin, mandolin and guitar) and Ric “Open Range” Steinke (steel guitar and dobro) enhancing the effect just that much more. Ten tracks total.

CDs: $15 plus $3 s/h through www.almedam2bmusic.com or directly from Almeda Terry, 1650 Nahmis Ave., Huntley, MT 59037.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Way Out West
Richard Lee Cody and Mary Kaye

When the new singing team of Richard Lee Cody & Mary Kaye took the stage (literally) at the November 2009 WMA Awards Show & Showcase, many wondered if we might be seeing the arrival of a new Western music power duo. If we were premature in our assessment then, the arrival of this CD now makes it quite safe to state it as physical fact!

The specialty song that captivated the audience in Albuquerque is present here…a blending of “Wayward Wind” and Carson Robison’s “Carry Me Back To The Lone Prairie” they simply call “Wayward Prairie.” The lyrics do seem to converse as Mary Kaye delivers the words of the popular Lebowsky/Newman hit and Cody answers with those of the Robison classic. But we had no idea of the original songs in the repertoire that awaited us!

Some standouts among the standouts include the big West ballad title track “Way Out West”; a surprise ending song, “A Free And Restless Spirit”; “Homeward Bound” written by Mary Kaye specifically for their duo act; her outlaw song “Buckskin Joe” that showcases her remarkable vocal control in particular; and a mellow saga song, “The Drifter and the Lady.” There’s a rearrangement of melody and lyrics of “Home On The Range” that makes it their own, and even the liner notes written by each from a personal perspective make for a fresh presentation there as well.

This duo’s blend isn’t specifically reminiscent of any other team. It’s just very, very pleasing and their songwriting is consistently strong.  Sound to you like they may be on to something?

CD: $15 (US) ppd through www.richardleecody.com where you can hear samples. Or, as Cody puts it, “by Pony Express” (tailmail?) directly from Richard Lee Cody,3460 W. 3600 S., Heber City, UT 84032.

© 2010, Rick Huff

History in the Barn
Jessica Hedges

Here’s a question before we start: Have I just been missing it, or is it comparatively rare for a female cowboy poet to write original verse in "first person" from the male perspective? Delivering such poems, sure… but writing original ones? Somehow it stood out to me this time. Curious...

Anyway, on her new CD Jessica Hedges’ opening poem called “Moving” is done in that way. Of course a poem just has to ring true…and in this case it does. So, why not? She moves on to perspectives from various eras of cowboys, cowgirls, wives, daughters, kids and neighbors who could have any kind of “History In The Barn” or, for that matter, any history of stepping away from it. Or even riding past if you extend the thought, since Joaquin Murrieta shows up.

Hedges grew up on a 450,000 acre spread and has the feel of it in her veins. That background is part of what prompted her to put pen to paper. And multiple trips to the National Cowboy Gathering in Elko, Nevada, further inspired her to perform what she wrote. And it’s gotten her far enough to be nominated for an Academy Of Western Artists’ Will Rogers Award for the album.

Cowboy poetry, like many other fine libations, seems to mature with aging. It will be worth keeping an eye on Jessica Hedges as the intricacies of her performing skills continue to deepen.

CD: $15 ppd through www.jessicahedgescowboypoetry.com or directly from Jessica Hedges, 21071 Road A NE, Soap Lake, WA 98851.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Symposium 2010
Cowboy Poets of Utah

Here is the commemorative CD from the Salem, Utah gather of poets and artists from back in January of this year. Judging from the result, here is proof positive for any who didn’t know that the state has a good, strong cell of cowboy poets workin’!

Offerings from Sam Deleeuw, Jo Lynne Kirkwood, Paul Bliss, Laverna B. Johnson, Curly Syndergaard and many other known poets blend with the works of up-and-comers, and all of it represents the Cowboy Way effectively in verse.

Also among the twenty-two tracks of poetic offerings are six made into songs. Badger Clark’s “The Old Cow Man” is set to music by Kenny Hall, and Ken Stevens and C.R. Wood offer “Dreamin’” and “Ridin’ Down The Trail Again.” A poem here from Wood called “Cowboy Music” is one of the best explanations of its popularity and longevity yet.

There’s much more I could cite to recommend the collection, but I’ll shorten it up by simply stating I highly recommend it…especially at the price!

CDs: $5 through www.cowboypoetsofutah.com and be aware there are many different shipping rates calculated depending on location and means of shipment.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Here, There, or Anywhere
Rod Taylor

Some fresh attention has recently been paid to Rod Taylor. Not the Hollywood actor, the dedicated working cowboy and mellow-voiced singer/songwriter from Cimarron, New Mexico! He and his music are featured in part of the fine new DVD, Tierra Encantado, profiling the culture of New Mexico cowboys and ranching.

A cassette of Rod Taylor’s album Ridin’ Down The Canyon was the first contemporary Western Music album I ever bought. For many years he has served as Head Cowboy of the world famous Philmont Scout Ranch. Musically he has also received high marks for his work with the New Mexico/Colorado border-straddling band The Rifters. Another band member is Don Richmond, “proprietor” of the frequently lauded Howlin’ Dog Studios in Alamosa, Colorado. He co-produced and has added his performing skills on harmony vocal, guitar, fiddle, bass, banjo, mandolin, Indian flute, accordion and weissenberg (!) to this latest Rod Taylor release!

The best part is Rod Taylor’s still got it! The CD starts off with a great acoustic treatment of Curly Fletcher’s “Saddle Tramp.” Next he effectively puts his own melody to the lyric lines of “Pecos Puncher” and offers simple yet fresh takes of “Colorado Trail,” “Chopo” and “I Ride An Old Paint/Goodbye Old Paint” (here called “Ridin’ Old Paint/Goodbye Old Paint”). Fine new originals include “Dust & Horns,” “Bonita Canyon Drive” and co-writes “Condisciple” and “Beautiful World.” It’s a beautiful CD!

A couple of crediting points: “Colorado Trail” is now acknowledged to be written by James A. Bliss. Although Andy Adams certainly contributed to the song “I’d Like To Be In Texas When They Roundup In The Spring,” the published version is attributed to Carl Copeland and Jack Williams (1916).

CD: $15 plus $4 s/h from Rod Taylor, 505 Cattle Headquarters Rd., Cimarron, NM 87714. His site is www.rodtaylormusic.com to download an order form.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Writes and Co-Writes, Volume 2
Les Buffham and Friends

Here’s the second edition of Les Buffham's poems designed to be put to music by others. And this collection like t’never got dragged to the fire, according to its head wrangler! It’s a saga of a lost master and sweatin’ blood not to mention leaking money, but for the listener (at least), it will doubtlessly prove to have been worth it!

Once again the tracks are drawn from the CDs of various collaborators with whom Les has worked. They include Marvin O’Dell, “Flowers In The Snow”; Sid Hausman, a novel spoon rhythm treatment of “Ain’t No Worryin’ Me”; Jim Jones (Four J’s”); Judy Coder, the award winning “Mourning Dove Song”' Cody Bryant, “Marryin’ Kind”; a team-penning competition song with Linda Kirkpatrick, “What A Cowboy Knows”; a song with the late Paul Hendel “Preacher’s Sabbatical”; a Tanya Rose vocal of Les Buffham and Walt Richards’ “Color Of Love”; and Trails & Rails’ cover of “Night Train Down To Yellowstone.” There’s “Headstone By The Trail” from Katy Creek; David Anderson, “Up On The High Ground”; Pat Meade, “Belle Of The Cowboy Ball”; Bill Barwick, “There’s A Rodeo Behind Us”; and Bill Snow, “Paint The Brown Grass Green”.

Obviously it’s not a bad way to “Whitman’s Sample” a group of Western artists as well!

CDs: $15 ppd through www.cdbaby.com, www.lesbuffham.com or directly from Les Buffham, 28278 Alaminos Dr., Saugus, CA 91350.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Tierra Encantado—New Mexico Cowboy
Susan Jensen & Paul Singer

Here is “Vaquero Six,” as its creators refer to this DVD, the newest entry in their amazing documentary series. Susan Jensen & Paul Singer have copiously chronicled the cowboying styles, history, lore and the broad culture of the West, including California vaqueros, Great Basin buckaroos, Hawaiian paniolo, Northern range cowboys and the first vaqueros.

Now they have focused on New Mexico and the particularly intricate blending of techniques, traditions and people who ranch and cowboy there today. Music accentuates and propels the narrative, coming from artists such as New Mexico’s Pedro Marquez, Rod Taylor, Ken Moore, The Flying J Wranglers, Jeff Nourse, Shirley Metzler and Bill Bailey among others. Jensen and Singer have a strong sensitivity to their subject, and their gloriously captured presentation shows it.

In the course of this 96-minute DVD we visit great spreads of New Mexico like the Bell, the Pecos, the Conchas, San Cristobal and the Singleton and Sanchez ranches. We go to the Navajo Rodeo and a high mountain line camp, have chuck with cowboy artist Gary Morton and constantly get to know incredible people of the West.

Each of the J & S Productions documentaries have managed to capture special parts of the cowboy life. They’ve discovered “he’s still out there ridin’ fences,” and since “you just can’t see him from the road” it’s fortunate for all of us thta these particular folks have a good deal of off-roading in their blood.

DVD: $21.95 (US) ppd through www.tapadero.com or to find retail outlet list, or contact J & S Productions, PO Box 91560, Santa Barbara, CA 93190. For additional info call (805) 695-0164.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Saddle Up! Music Of The West
Bill Ganz Western Band

Not long ago the Western Music Association partnered with the Bill Ganz Western Band (Ganz, Rich Brennion, Bill Ronstadt & Ralph Gilmore) and the Tucson Symphony to offer a special program with narration that celebrated the importance and history of Western Music in Arizona. Due to the expense and complexities of licensing, there was no recording released of any of the live performances. But here we have what might reasonably be called a “companion CD” for folks to enjoy.

Sans orchestra, the band offers their own fine arrangements of such Arizona-connected classics as Bob Nolan’s “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” and “Cool Water”; Stan Jones’ “Riders In The Sky (A Cowboy Legend)”…they’d better have the correct title of that one; Badger Clark’s “Border Affair”; Rex Allen’s famous song written at age 14 “Arizona Waltz”; and another interesting one…the theme from the film “Johnny Guitar” written by Victor Young, also known for having conducted the orchestra behind Rex Allen’s most famous recording of “Streets Of Laredo.”

Bill Ganz’ own theme for the syndicated radio serial done in Arizona called “West Of The Story” is here, as it should be. This provided a wonderful opportunity for the Ganz Band to offer their fans that album we’ve often referred to…the collection of oft requested material. And these folks do it so well! Ten tracks total.

CD: $15 plus $3 s/h from Bill Ganz, 3341 W. Wildwood Drive, Tucson, AZ 85741-3335; www.ganzmusic.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

Alone Under The Stars
Mike Blair & The Rafter B's

Not so acoustic and mellow that your average Detractors of the Acoustically Mellow would rebel...yet not so rambunctious that some kind of Fellowship Against Rambunctious Stuff would be aroused! That is the new album called "Alone Under The Stars!" How did they pull this off, anyway?! Very well, thank you!
In this debut CD, the young Canadian musician/cowboy Mike Blair and friends strike a great balance as well as some good strong chords. There’s a contemporary feel to the work, but still quite comfortable for any ear and that’s what’s so well thought out. The first track on the album is “Legacy.” There’s almost a deconstruction in the accompaniment, as if it might just go away every now and then. It’s an effect that keeps you refreshed and on your toes. But there’s more that’s refreshing about this album.

By the artist’s own sticky note designations on the CD sent for airplay (or review), the aforementioned track “Legacy,” “Ride This Train” and one called “Quin McAdam” would more closely fall into the Traditional spectrum while cuts like “’71 (Chase That Wild Ride),” “Alone Under The Stars” and “Burnin’ ‘Berta Hills” lean toward Modern. But all the tracks here dovetail nicely as Mike Blair (songwriting, vocals, acoustic guitar & bass) and The Rafter B’s Jen Blair (backing vocals) and Carl Strempler (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, bass & drum programming) present their takes on Cowboy and Country. I’d say this one is certainly worth your attention.

CD: $14.99 cdn ($14.26 US) plus $7.95 (US) s/h from Mike Blair & The Rafter B, Box 567, Landmark, MB R0A 0X0 Canada or through www.rafterb.net where many shipping rates are offered for mailing within Canada.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Country, Hard As Steel
Steel Country

My gosh! Here’s Chuck Cusimano in yet another reinvention of himself! Ok, it’s actually just a continuation of himself…but set semantics aside and enjoy the thing!

Here the ace singer/songwriter and working cowboy has teamed up with fellow songwriter Donnie Barrow (drums, lead and background vocals), Steve Culbertson (bass & background vocals) and Eddie Morgan (keyboards) in Steel Country, “a four piece Country Band!” These guys definitely know what to give the true (or the Texas) Country music fans. Beat driven boot scoots, shuffles and waltzes, and cheatin’ songs with that good turn of phrase. When “Something Ain’t Wrong” somethin’ ain’t right, says that song. Another guy’s ex-girl “Looking Like Heaven” has the singer “feeling like hell.” Or the champion in the neat phrase category Cusimano’s “You’ve Still Got Him In Your Eyes” (“…as far as I can tell he’s as far as you can see…and as far as I’m concerned that ain’t far enough for me!”)

This little album’s got everything, except for one musical element its name and that of the band might lead you to expect—namely, steel! No crying steel guitar is present here, and I seriously doubt you’ll never miss it. If there’s justice in the world and some savvy distribution of Steel Country’s “Country, Hard As Steel,” you should hear it playing from many a pickup’s stereo and drifting out from many a honky tonk’s door. And if you happen to hear it in that way, lean in. It might be them performing live!

One thing to watch out for…there’s another group called “Steel Country” out of Kentucky. If you just go a’Googling for them, you’ll likely wind up in a very wrong place!

CD: $15 from Cruisin’ Debi Do Records, 1710 Springfield Rd., Springtown, TX 76082 or download online through www.buckatune.net/steelcountry.htm for $1 per song or $15 for the CD.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Silver Screen Heroes & Other Legends
Ron Christopher

Those bigger-than-life TV cowboys are generally good for a turn around the musical dance floor, and Ron Christopher sashays with the subject quite well.

He is product of the generation who met the B-Western cowboys as they moved onto the home screens, likely accounting for the absence of the Charles Starretts, Tex Ritters and Eddie Deans. Also it may explain his tribute song “The Last Singing Cowboy” being about Gene Autry rather than Rex Allen, who outlived him, or Herb Jeffries who is still with us as of this writing. But Hoppy, The Lone Ranger, Roy and others are here in appropriate settings.

Christopher’s “Song For Sky” is only the second I’ve ever heard dedicated specifically to Kirby Grant’s Saturday morning TV flying cowboy Sky King. Clever turns of phrase in it such as “while all the others rode the ‘plains’ you flew them” help sell it, and his vocals that admittedly evoke a mix of Marty Robbins, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash finish signing the project on the dotted line. Even on his website Christopher admits some of the CD isn’t really Western music by category or intent, and a heavy Country drum asserts itself occasionally in the Western content as well. From the “Other Legends” portion of the CD come such works as “Ballad Of Billy Rose” (an outlaw saga song borrowing the name of his performing friend from Elko), “King Of Nashville” (in tribute to the not-quite stars), “Cowboy Poetry” (for those who write it), “Saddle Tramp” (in memory of Alan Ladd’s Shane) and more. There’s even a tribute to a place…the late lamented Palomino Club in Bakersfield (“Hallowed Ground”).

Ron Christopher’s CD is a worthy new arrival. Thirteen tracks total.

CD: $10.95 through www.ronchristophermusic.com where you’ll find information on CD purchase through www.nimbitmusic.com and digital download from DIGSTATION.

© 2010, Rick Huff

Cowboy—The Ultimate Guide To Living Like A Great American Icon
Matt Pelligrini and Rocco Wachman

Rocco Wachman, the popular host of CMT’s Cowboy U has teamed up writer and enthusiast Matt Pellegrini to produce what will surely become an indispensible reference…not only for those wishing to live the life (or aspire to it) but most assuredly anyone wanting to write with authority about cowboying and the West. Those writing about the volume have called it “the first book to examine the cowboy lifestyle through a pop culture lens.” C’mon, you know you needed it…

Contained here and described in a breezy but literal manner is just about everything you could ever need to know about the history, the work, the gear, the animals and vehicles, the food, the business side, the etiquette and the people. It’s just as the cover proclaims, “your essential guide to The Cowboy Way!” Nicely illustrated with art and photographs.

Within the history are entertaining sidebars under headings like “Cowboy Trivia,” “Cowboy Law” “Real-Deal People” and “Rocco Says” with some being highly specific and targeted, like “Saloons You’ve Just Gotta Drink At,” “Where To Buy Spurs” and “Ranching Must-Reads.” All facets of rodeo are covered, the ins and outs of riding a mechanical bull like an expert, you get recipes straight from the cocinero’s Dutch oven and much, much more.

In our area of cowboy poetry and Western music, the authors also offer their recommendations. They are Don Edwards, Jerry Jeff Walker, Pat James, Red Steagall, Robert Earl Keen, R.W. Hampton, Sons Of The San Joaquin, Tex Ritter and Waddie Mitchell….period. We’ll just have to let that settle and digest with you. Regardless, this is a good read, with good clear print on an easy-on-the-eyes paper stock. I would call this one a good bedside book as it’s informative in a quickly absorbed format, and enjoyable on many levels.

Book: $13.99 US retail or $9.99 online through www.harpercollins.com

© 2010, Rick Huff

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