Singing Cowboys [With CD]

by Douglas Green

Book Overview

Singing Cowboys tells the fabled story of the men and women who shone brightly during the magical era of the singing cowboy movie star. It was an era when Western heroes sang and yodeled as well as... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586858084
• ISBN13: 9781586858087
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith Publishers
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 2.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.7" x 10.1"

Customer Reviews

singing cowboys

a good book but the dvd does not match the songs that come up as being on the cd, but they are good never the less

Singing Cowboys

A book like this has been needed for a long time. I wish that it wasn't such a brief overview, but had more depth with the characters. There were minor singing cowboys that I would like to have learned more about, but at least they were mentioned. When I picked this book up to read it, I didn't know I couldn't put it down until I had finished. The accompanying CD has good coverage, but leaves you wanting more. Good thing I have a good collection this type of music.

An outstanding, colorful history

An audio cd of music packs added punch to the review of Western cowboy music's development and colorful characters in SINGING COWBOYS, which charts a bygone era when cowboys sang, yodeled, and were active members of the real West. From the singing cowboy movie fad to the evolution of the cowboy from ranch hand to musician, the lives of some sixty 'singing cowboys' are presented in a blend of biographical sketches, photos, and music. An outstanding, colorful history, SINGING COWBOYS will interest even readers who have only a casual affection for the genre, and deserves a spot in any general or music-specific library.

Singing Cowboys

Interesting to see all the history of the original country singers that were real cowboys. The CD adds greatly to the history, especially for those who didn't hear them originally. Wish there were more of the old songs by these artists on CD.

SINGING COWBOYS: THE STORIES AND THE SONGS

Doug (Ranger Doug) Green has followed up on "Singing in the Saddle," his scholarly milestone in the history of the singing cowboy phenomena, with this delightful treat for the fans. If someone sang in a "B" western just once they are surely here. Incisive thumbnail essays describe the contributions of fifty personalities and five singing groups who made lasting impressions singing in the silver screen sagebrush. An additional chapter covers working bands and pickup bands that would provide music where needed. One group forinstance, the very popular Beverly Hillbillies, appeared uncredited as the Radio Ranch band in "The Phantom Empire" before getting their due in Gene Autry's "The Big Show." If the brief resumes of the stars fail to conjure memories of matinees past then the beautiful graphics, from a publisher dedicated to beautiful book production, will knock your nostalgia into gear. Opening the book provides a wide-screen, eye-poppin' (not a trite phrase in this case) spread of lobby cards, posters, songbook covers, stills and occasional publicity shots. My particular favorite is the full page picture of Roy Rogers sittin' on a fence and pickin' a guitar which I hadn't seen since my youth. This is an expanded, and strangely colorless version of a photograph originally shot in the studios of the New York Daily News for publication in their Sunday Coloroto Magazine. There are a few minor glitches in the text. Dick Foran appeared with Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis in "Petrified Forest" not "Painted Desert," Tex Ritter's work on "High Noon" was in 1952, at the midpoint of his career, not 1950, and a bit of clarification in the Jane Frazee article would have helped. "Captain Blood" was a big picture in 1935 starring Errol Flynn and readers might think it is the film alluded to but it is "Captain Blueblood," (not Blue Blood) a two-reel Vitaphone short trading on the Flynn features' title. These caveats aside the book is a treasury of memories, pictorial marvels and music. Accompanying the book is a 10 song CD starting with Patsy Montana's "I Want to be A Cowboy's Sweetheart" and ending with Rex Allen's "Too Lee Roll Um." In between you can hear Smiley Burnette's "Mama Don't Like Music," a song whose history deserves a couple of paragraphs, the classic "Blue Shadows on the Trail" by Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers" and Ray Whitley's recording of "Back in the Saddle Again" made before Gene Autry put his brand on it. All in all a great round-up of stars, scenes, and songs for the "B" western fan .