Yampa Valley Boys - "The Christmas Trail"Yampa Valley Boys
"The Christmas Trail"
The rustic folk feel and frailing banjo style of the Yampa Valley Boys could bring an extra homespun element to your holidays this year!
Launching the collection with Don Edwards' melodic treatment of the Badger Clark title track poem sets the tone well. Songwise Yampas Steve Jones (vocals/guitar) and John Fisher (vocals/banjo/resophonic guitar) with Steve Boynton (bass/shaker/dobro) have nicely side-stepped some of the usual players on such CDs and still kept the idea. Among those highpoints are the Suzy Boggus/Doug Crider novelty "Two Step Round The Christmas Tree," "Twelve Days Of Cowboy Christmas," a Steve Goodman song "Colorado Christmas" popularized by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Wendy Waldman & Carol Elliot's refreshing "Corn, Water & Wood" and the traditional song "Christmas Time's A' Comin.'"
There are enough of the requisite standards in attendance...several of them put into a convenient package by the Yampa Valley Boys as a medley. Ten tracks total. I'm thinking as the season approaches each year you'll likely like to haul out "The Christams Trail" to frail your way into the wassail!!
CDs: $17 ppd from Yampa Valley Boys, PO Box 773611, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477
- by Rick Huff
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Geff Dawson - "A Tougher Horse"Geff Dawson
"A Tougher Horse"
Cowboy poet Geff Dawson gives his hungry fans a tasty feed bag to strap on with this one! Working cowboy reflections and novelty pieces with most being set to effective music.
"One Good Horse" is a collaboration between Dawson and performer/writer Gary S. Pratt, and the song of Pratt's "Cowboy Dream" features a related poem written and performed by Dawson. It's a good teaming. A major load of inside humor is found in "Branson Missouri Blues"...part of which could've been enough to get him not invited back had he not redeemed himself in the last verse!! Other picks among the originals here include "Ghost Cowboy" (an good campfire legend in verse), "I Hear The Trailer Comin'" (a Johnny Cash parody), "Daddy Told Me" (not to cuss the rain) and "The Day Would Come" (the old cowboy hangs it up). There's an adapted version of Chris LeDoux's "John Ed Sang Cowpoke" as "Johnny Western Sang Cowpoke" with poet Trey Allen delivering verse in it.
I'm not sure about the decision to use a canned studio audience sound effect on "Rindercella" but it's not a deal breaker in the pen (apologies to Joel Nelson for that one...) !!
CDs: $15 plus $2 s/h from Geff Dawson, 2 Bar D Ranch, 33691 K99 Hwy., Alma, KS 66402 also through cdbaby.com and other online stores.
- by Rick Huff
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Joe Herrington - "Shalako"Joe Herrington
"Shalako"
JH3763
His voice is authentic, disarming and kinda located down the Slim Pickins trail. But the pickins in Joe Herrington's poetic content are anything but slim! And you won't find any better meld of Cowboy Poetry to musical backup than you will on this little beauty from Herrington & company!
The album shows off very effective guitar accompaniment from Howard Yearwood, vocal backup from Ronda Herrington, Zephyr Lorraine Spear and Skeeter Mann and unique percussion elements by Ray and Ben Herrington. But it's the words and Joe Herrington's presentation of them that provide the real momentum here. The soft but commanding Herrington delivery sends these good words straight into you. Concerning "Shalako" itself, I can't recall a better rendering of a big west gunfighter verse since Lorne Greene gave us "Ringo" back in '64. A number of Herrington's poems on the CD deal with the general theme of someone going unappreciated until its too late, but each has a point to make.
It must be Kiskaddon season as the second version of his "Broncho Twister's Prayer" in as many months showed up on this album! It's credited as being from the 1800s. Actually its birthdate would be between 1924 & 1947 according to expert Bill Siems. "Drinkin' From My Saucer" (cited here as "author unknown") is all over the internet as dating from 1970 and being by John Paul Moore. Other tracks include "Dillon" (a good sucker bet payoff piece), "Shoulda Done It" (a heart tugging life lesson and the best of the "gone unappreciated" poems), "Rooster" (a miracle of personnel management), "Night Hawk" (a narrated and sung creation with Skeeter Mann) and "The Wounded Post" (how a kid fends off getting a fist in his too-open mouth). Thirteen tracks total. Superior stuff!
CDs: $18 ppd through www.joeherrington.com
- by Rick Huff
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Lynn Anderson "Cowgirl II" There's no stepchild feel to this sequel from Lynn Anderson! "Cowgirl II" is every bit as exciting as its award-winning 2006 predecesor, and various guest appearances this time around take things just that much higher.
Actor Barry Corbin was a perfect choice to provide a commanding Ben Johnson-style trail boss voice in the rich saga song "Turn The Herd," Arizona's Rollie Stevens brings a distinctly Marty Robbins feel (appropriately) to "Mexican Angel," and no one familiar with Belinda Gail's situation of the past couple of years could miss the special poignance of her duet with Lynn on mom Liz Anderson's "The Loan." Classic songs covered include the hit Liz gave Lynn (and Brenda Lee also recorded) "Ride Ride Ride," a fine take of Poco's "Rose Of Cimarron" and a southwest regional favorite "Bandita," penned by her fella Mentor Williams with fellow Taos singer/songwriter Michael Hearne.
Few performers before or since Lynn Anderson have understood better than she the true art of owning a song. Once again in "Cowgirl II" she proves that. Whether she's doing a classic or a new song, when she plies her powerful chords to the task, you know she means every word! Superb!
CD: (ordering info not furnished, but available generally and through online sources)
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Frank Fara "Songs Of The Untamed West"Frank Fara's name and his label Comstock Records will be familiar to many radio stations and Western music show hosts. Through his CD samplers he helped educate broadcasters who paid attention that artists from Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada and other areas of the world actually produced worthwhile Country and Western!!
In his own CD Fara is free to trek the historic west. It's obviously a labor of love written as history lessons, some from the perspective of those who might have been present. Original songs include "Charming Billy - Billy The Kid," "Isom Dart - A Black Cowboy," "The Daltons At Coffeyville" "The Saga of Diamondfield Jack," "Donner Pass" and five others. The production values are big and support Fara's rather rustic folk vocal stylings.
Listening I suspect there may be a certain nostalgia manifested in those who remember Western Music's earlier resurgence years. Fewer new songs seem to be written in this style nowadays, which isn't to say there's no longer a place for it.
CD: $15 ppd ($18 outside the US) from Comstock Records, PO Box 19720, Fountain Hills, AZ 85269. Also available through www.cdbaby.com/cd/frankfara2 and digital downloads are offered at Apple I Tunes and Amazon.com (search by "Frank Fara").
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The Prairie Rose Rangers (self titled)I've been curious to hear the group that entertains these days at the Prairie Rose Chuckwagon. And here they are in their premiere CD!
For history buffs the group that was The Prairie Rose Wranglers became the Diamond W Wranglers, the group at the Prairie Rose became The Prairie Rose Rangers and one of the original Wranglers (Orin Friesen) is now in the Rangers! Don't try that without a scorecard...degree of difficulty in repeating it is an 8! Orin Friesen (bass, vocals) is also now the Operations Manager at the Prairie Rose, where this group entertains.
Their sound (at least in the mix on this album) is less flashy than some of the Chuckwagon groups, leaning more toward the homespun and rustic. The songs on which Kim Coslett (vocals, guitar, piano) handles the lead are among the collection's best: "Desperado," "West Texas Wind" and "Thank Heavens For Dale Evans"...the latter two having come from the very first CD from the very first Dixie Chicks! There's a nice guest appearance from Rex Allen, Jr. singing his dad's famous "Arizona Waltz" (written at age 14, by the way)! Other bandmembers include vocalist Kris Johnson, Jolynn MacIntyre (fiddle, vocals) and Jesse Friesen who also produced, engineered and mastered the album. Twelve tracks in all.
CDs: $19 ppd through www.prairieroserangers.com or directly by check/m.o. from "Prairie Rose," 15231 SW Parallel St., Benton, KS 67017
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