Singing Cowboys
by Douglas Green
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Book Summary Information
Author: Douglas GreenEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-08
ISBN: 1586858084
Number of pages: 144
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
Book Reviews of Singing Cowboys
Book Review: SINGING COWBOYS: THE STORIES AND THE SONGS
Summary: 5 Stars
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 .
Summary of Singing Cowboys
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 threw punches and drew six-guns; an era where for a time nearly half the Western films churned out in Hollywood's golden age either featured a singer as a hero, or had singing second leads or singing ranch hands to provide that dreamy, romantic, exquisitely beautiful music we now think of as western. Follow the singing cowboy movie fad, from Gene Autry's first films in 1935 to Marty Robbins' drive-in quickie movies in 1959. Singing Cowboys recalls with fondness the stories of nearly sixty men, women, and groups who embodied the singing cowboy tradition, from Tex Ritter to Dale Evans. All the biggest stars are included, as are many great old-timey artists whose names are not so well known. Their voices and images filled an entire generation with optimism and hope, and encouraged us all to dream big-the "cowboy way."Featuring such famed cowboy singers as:
Gene Autry
Bing Crosby
Dale Evans
Tito Guizar
Dorothy Page
Riders of the Purple Sage
Tex Ritter
Marty Robbins
Roy Rogers
John Wayne
Ray Whitley
and dozens more!
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