Howdy!This is the third page of my guide to the music of the so-called "singing cowboys..." The other pages deal with individual artists ; this page recommends various artist collections, and is part of a larger Country Music Guide.
Various Artists "CATTLE CALL: EARLY COWBOY MUSIC AND ITS ROOTS" (Rounder, 1996)
Various Artists "DON'T FENCE ME IN: WESTERN MUSIC'S EARLY GOLDEN ERA" (Rounder, 1996)
Various Artists "STAMPEDE! WESTERN MUSIC'S LATE GOLDEN ERA, 1945-1960" (Rounder, 1996)
Various Artists "SADDLE UP! THE COWBOY RENAISSANCE" (Rounder, 1996)
An excellent series of discs which are broken up into different eras, from the rough-edged Harry McClintock recordings of the 1920s, on into the slick, chrome-plated, plastic-lacquered homage harmonies of the Riders In The Sky in the present day. Well programmed, and musically varied. An excellent starting point if you want to try this cowboy stuff out.
Various Artists "AUTHENTIC COWBOYS AND THEIR WESTERN FOLKSONGS" (RCA Vintage, 1965)
Raw stuff, a lot of it of with for-real, non-Hollywood, pedigree. Some of these weatherbeaten, dusty old-timers made it in off the cattle drives long enough to sit down in some recording studio and dash off a ditty about a wild horse roping, or treacherous trail drive, etc... Of course, just as many of these Depression-era "Cowboys" were just as tame as their motion picture counterparts -- professional musicians and radio personalities who spent more time in front of a microphone than on top of a cayuse. But if you're looking for some old-school "cowboy" songs, this is one of the best collections ever issued on LP.
