Sons of the Pioneers

Artist: Sons of the Pioneers

LP: Sons of the Pioneers Sing Hymns of the Cowboy

Song: "Lord, You Made the Cowboy Happy"

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I found a copy of this 1963 Sons of the Pioneers record at The Shady Lady antique store in Centralia over the weekend. It ended up being one I already had on my shelves...but this copy is mono, rather than stereo, and it also doesn't have the previous owner's name streaked across the top of the cover in permanent black ink...so I've unintentionally upgraded my collection! 

I know it probably seems like I'd think this about all of the songs on this record, but I can't help feeling that "Lord, You Made the Cowboy Happy" would make an excellent soundtrack to a homoerotic soft-core Western-themed short film. And to anyone who would accuse me of not honoring "Reverence in the Western Tradition," I have just two words: Brokeback Mountain. I bet there are lots of lesser-known Western Traditions these lonely, rugged cowboys engaged in that didn't make it into the final cuts of all those John Ford Western films.

[ Sons of the Pioneers in 1963 ]

Charley Pride [1934-2020]

 

Artist: Charley Pride

LP: Christmas In My Home Town

Song: "Christmas In My Home Town"

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Song: "Santa and the Kids"

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Song: "O Holy Night"

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Country music legend Charley Pride died earlier this week from illness related to COVID-19. Reading about his career on Wikipedia just now, I learned a number of things (the number 4) about Charley that I hadn't known before: 

 

1.) Before his music career took off, Charley Pride played professional baseball! He pitched for teams in places like Memphis, Tennessee; Boise, Idaho; Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; Louisville, Kentucky; Missoula, Montana. When Charley was let go from the team in Missoula...

 

2.) Charlie Pride and his family lived in Helena, Montana for a number of years (the number 9), from 1960 to 1969, where Charlie did hard labor in a smelter during the day, while pursuing his dreams of a career in the arts at night (sound familiar?). 

 

3.) Though I knew Charley Pride was black, of course, I'd never before considered what it must have been like for him to have to face a crowd of (it's safe to assume) mostly all-white country music fans who may not have been aware of this fact in the early days of Pride's success in the mid-to-late 1960s. According to Wikipedia: In the late summer of 1966, on the strength of his early releases, [Charley] was booked for his first large show, in Detroit's Olympia Stadium. Since no biographical information had been included with those singles, few of the 10,000 country fans who came to the show knew Pride was black, and discovered the fact only when he walked onto the stage, at which point the applause trickled off to silence. "I knew I'd have to get it over with sooner or later," Pride later remembered. "I told the audience: 'Friends, I realize it's a little unique, me coming out here — with a permanent suntan — to sing country and western to you. But that's the way it is.'" 

 

4.) Charley had 30 hits that reached the top of the country music charts in the USA, and one of them, "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'," was also a top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 pop charts, reaching #21 in early 1972.

 

Charlie Pride's one and only Christmas album was released in 1970, and I found this pristine copy earlier today at Golden Oldies Records in Wallingford. The New York Times obituary for Charlie Pride can be found here.

 

Charley Pride

[ March 18, 1934 — December 12, 2020 ]

We will miss you, Charley.

Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours

 Artist: Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours

LP: Country Dance Time

Song: "Detour"

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Song: "Leon's Guitar Boogie"

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I'm back. Here are a couple of tunes from this Ernest Tubb (with his Texas Troubadours) record I picked up at Fat Cat Records for just $.99 the other day. I'm willing to guess this record once belonged to someone with the initials "JHN." (John Henry Nashville? Jeb Henry Nistlethwhite? Who knows!) A lot has happened over the past four months while I haven't been posting. I wonder what some of the titles would be if Ernest Tubb and His Texas Troubadours were still around to write an LP full of songs about everything that's going on right now.

[ Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours ]

Kenny Rogers [1938-2020]

Artist: Kenny Rogers with Kim Carnes

LP: 7" single
Song: "Don't Fall In Love With a Dreamer"

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I'm a little late with this, but wanted to pay my respects to country music legend Kenny Rogers, who passed away last month at the age of 81. Kenny was on the radio a lot when I first started listening to pop radio in Yakima, WA back in 1981. I especially enjoyed Kenny's collaborations with Dolly Parton, Sheena Easton, and this one with Kim Carnes. And, um, has anyone seen SIX PACK? I'm afraid I've never managed to set myself down in front of that one. You can read all about the life and career of this particular Mr. Rogers here. 

 Kenny Rogers

[ August 21, 1938 — March 20, 2020 ]

We will miss you, Kenny.

Wilf Carter

Artist: Wilf Carter

LP: Wilf Carter "Montana Slim"
Song: "Two Little Girls In Blue"

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Song: "Grandad's Yodelling Song"

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Anyone with two ears and a brain should know that mixing yodeling, the Hammond organ, and a dash of Western twang would be a recipe for country music bliss. Still, this delectable dessert wasn't served up nearly often enough on vinyl 12" platters. But this Canadian fella, Wilf Carter, aka. "The Yodeling Cowboy," aka. "Montana Slim," aka. "The Father of Canadian Country Music," makes an entire meal of it. 

Originally from Nova Scotia, Wilf was a genuine cowboy on the plains of Alberta in the early 1930s before a couple of his records hit the jackpot and he began working the rodeo circuit with his guitar over the next 30-odd years. You can read more about Mr. Carter's life and career here, and in the LP liner notes included below. Right now there's nowhere on earth I'd rather eat breakfast than at the Wilf Carter Motor Lodge in Orlando, Florida. I bet it was like this. 

[ Two Little Girls In Blue ]

[ Wilf Carter, aka. "Montana Slim": December 18, 1904 — December 5, 1996 ]

Sons of the Pioneers

Artist: Sons of the Pioneers

LP: Cool Water
Song: "Cool Water"

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Song: "Timber Trail"

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We'll supposedly have highs in the mid-80s today here in Seattle, which isn't that hot for July, relatively speaking, but still it's plenty warm. I may not be a rovin' cowboy, but I'm a mailman now, a rovin' one even, and so I still need plenty of water. (We get messages on our scanner each morning reminding us of the signs of heat stroke.) I get a tall plastic glass of ice water from Starbucks each morning on my way to work, and then at lunch I hunt for an outpost where I can add a new batch of ice to it. I need to have water (water)...cool, clear water...for the afternoon. Naturally, this famous old country ditty by Sons of the Pioneers gets stuck in my head just about every day. LP liner notes by Yellowstone Chip, Montana's singin' cowboy, are included below. I hope when I'm a little older I'm still "puttin' on desert steak fries for the visiting dudes," (ahem!) so to speak.

 [ Sons of the Pioneers ] 

Ferlin Husky

Artist: Ferlin Husky

LP: Christmas All Year Long
Song: "Jingle Bells"

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Song: "I Wish It Could Be Christmas All Year Long"

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It feels like Ferlin is getting his wish for Christmas all year long here in Seattle this weekend. We've again been walloped with snow! Realizing I had nothing for my feet to traipse around in outside besides dress shoes and tennis shoes, I brushed eight inches of cold white powder off my car this morning and slid it to Fred Meyer. I was surprised and delighted to find that shoppers hadn't snatched up all available winter boots between sizes 8 and 15 in their Friday snowpocalypse shopping spree. I wonder what kind of boots Ferlin used to wear when dashing through the snow, laughing all the way. Wikipedia doesn't say.

[ Ferlin Husky: December 3, 1925 — March 17, 2011 ]