June 27 - July 4, 1 9 9 6

Wild West

Cowboy junkies can get their fill from three new CD sets

by Norman Weinstein

Perhaps the first record I owned as a kid -- is this confession unique? -- was a Roy Rogers or Gene Autry album. The artist's name meant nothing to me, the music likewise, but my parents' assumption that a six-year-old would like a singing cowboy came to mind as I listened to four new CDs of cowboy tunes from Rounder. These four discs may bring back a flood of childhood memories; more to the point, they -- and similar sets from Rhino and Smithsonian Folkways -- offer a rich portrait of a fascinating offshoot of American country music.

Rounder chose to issue its compilations separately rather than as a boxed set, a smart move since each disc offers a range of music highlighting distinct styles. The first volume, Cattle Call: Early Cowboy Music and Its Roots, is essential for anyone curious about pre-commercial cowboy songs. It's also the most musically various and memorable, covering tunes from 1925 on. Although few if any of the 14 songs will sound familiar (Hollywood stars didn't bring the genre of the cowboy song into the popular imagination till the '30s), they outline the central themes permeating all cowboy music. There's the musical bond between a cowboy and his herd immortalized by Tex Owens's "Cattle Call." There's the proud declaration of braving isolation in the wide open spaces, as on Carson Robison's "Carry Me Back to the Lone Prairie." And the expectation that boasting and trickery will conquer evil in Powder Lee Jack and Kitty Lee's "Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail." The music relies on the Anglo-American folk ballad tradition, on simple-to-follow narratives complete in a few brief stanzas, on vocals by unadorned male baritones or female contraltos, many with a wicked knack for yodeling. Uptempo songs favor galloping rhythms; instrumentation favors acoustic guitar and/or fiddle.

Hollywood film producers turned this folk/country tradition into a high-gloss formula, but volumes two and three in this series, Don't Fence Me In: Western Music's Early Golden Era and Stampede!: Western Music's Late Golden Era, are still fun to hear, and they offer a few surprises. Along with familiar tunes like Gene Autry's "Back in the Saddle Again," there's Louise Massey's "My Adobe Hacienda," which illustrates the rarely praised Hispanic tinge in cowboy music. "Dusty Skies" is an oddly morose blues by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, a reminder of how much more that band contributed than just "country swing." Best of all, the loony humor characterizing many of the best cowboy tunes is offered by Ray Whitley on "Wah-Hoo!" (sample verse: "What did Cleopatra say to Anthony when they met? "Wah-Hoo! Wah-Hoo! Wah-Hoo!")

No other compilation of cowboy music will offer you Boston's own Vaughn Monroe (1911-1973; he's on Stampede!, and yes, it's the same Monroe who was the big-band leader) doing his searing version of "Ghost Riders in the Sky." Whatever "Golden Age" means, cowboy music after 1935, after the advent of cowboy flicks, often utilized industrial-strength orchestras, female choruses, Tin Pan Alley lyricists, and "cowboy" vocalists whose closest connection to a steer would be a well-done steak. Still, just try to resist the dulcet harmonies (rooted in church hymns and vaudeville) of the Sons of the Pioneers.

Johnny Western's "The Ballad of Paladin," from 1958 (also on Stampede!), marks the transition from moviehouse to TV Western themesong. You get the same hyper-sentimentality and overproduction as with film music, and the same melodic hooks and catchy lyrics about America's favorite cultural icon. Those who enjoy these TV themes are advised to snatch up the fourth volume of Rhino's Songs of the West four-CD set, Movie and Television Themes. The Rhino set has some overlap with the Rounder, but true to the Rhino name it more emphatically underscores the campy and schlocky in cowboy tunes.

The last volume in the Rounder series, Saddle Up: The Cowboy Renaissance, covering the years 1973-1992, is disappointing. Douglas B. Green ("Ranger Doug" from the group Riders in the Sky) compiled these four discs over years, an obvious labor of love. But it seems self-serving to include three songs by his own group. And his definition of revitalized cowboy songs has apparently never encountered multiculturalism or feminism or countercultural folk. His omissions are stunning. Where's Ramblin' Jack Elliott? Ray Charles? Kinky Friedman? Emmylou Harris? Contemporary women, African-Americans, and Native Americans also carry on this musical heritage today. Give a listen to Cowboy Songs on Folkways (Smithsonian Folkways), a brilliantly offbeat, single-disc compilation created by Gus Logsdon, for a multifaceted picture of the many unconventional musical voices "The Cowboy" has assumed.