If you grew up in the 1950s as I did you were interested in Cowboys and the Old West. There were countless movies and television shows depicting the life in the West. Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and others were a big part of your daily life as you strapped on your holster and donned your Stetson and went out with your friends to the wild suburban plains. This week we’ll hear Western music classics and new recordings which bring back memories of those golden and innocent years.

LISTEN:

Artist / “Title” / CD / Label

Pete Seeger / “If I Had A Hammer” / Songs Of Hope And Struggle /
        Smithsonian-Folkways

Fiddlin’ Johnny / “Hotfoot” / Cowboy Legacy / Makoche’
Carson Robison’s Buckaroos / “Carry Me back to the Lone Prairie”
         / Cattle Call Rounder
Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee / “Tying Knots in the Devil’s Tail
        ” / When I Was a Cowboy Vol 1 / Yazoo
Crockett Family / “Buffalo Gals Medley” / When I Was a Cowboy
         Vol 2 / Yazoo
Harry Jackson / “Strawberry Roan” / Cowboy Songs on Folkways
         / Smithsonian Folkways

Gene Autry / “Jail House Blues” / Blues Singer 1929-1931 /
         Columbia
Gene Autry / “Yellow Rose of Texas” / Best of Gene Autry /
        Sony
Riders in the Sky / “Blue Canadian Rockies” / Public Cowboy
        #1 / Rounder
Roy Rogers / “I’m an Old Cowhand” / Country Music Hall of
        Fame / MCA
Fiddlin’ Johnny / “Lime Rock” / Cowboy Legacy / Makoche’

Buck Ramsey / “Cowboy’s Lament (Streets of Laredo)” /
        Classic American Ballads / Smithsonian Folkways
Glenn Ohrlin / “A Cowboy’s Dance Song” / Cowboy Poetry
        Classics / Smithsonian Folkways
Ian Tyson / “Legends of Cutting” / Lost Herd / Vanguard
Katy Moffatt / “Me and My Uncle” / Cowboy Girl / Shanachie

Mary McCaslin / “Prairie in the Sky” / Things We Said
        Today / Philo
Skip Gorman / “Blue Mountain” / A Greener Prairie /
        Rounder
Pete Seeger / “If I Had a Hammer (excerpt)” / Songs of Hope and Struggle /
        Smithsonian Folkways