Customer Reviews

Country Music Hall of Fame

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is, to me at least, the definitive "desert island" recording of the Sons of the Pioneers. Every track is good, their greatest songs are included, the CD is amply filled, and the sound is old ("authentic") without being unpleasant. Owning both the Hall of Fame disc and the Columbia Historic Edition provides a very good representation of this piece of Americana. If you want only one disc, this is it.

I found this CD hidden away in my car's glove compartment and pushed it into the CD player, thinking I'd get a nostalgic laugh. After all, when I was a kid, watching Roy Rogers movies on Saturday afternoons at the Fox or Oritani in Hackensack, it would be these same Sons of the Pioneers who backed Roy up, singing and playing their hearts out. The song over, Roy would disappear with Dale to apprehend a criminal or two and the Sons would just disappear til the next music cue.

It surprised me how moving these songs and their performances really are. They are, for the most part, slow, sad songs about a very difficult life in the West: old age, loneliness and death are more than occasional subjects.

First rate singers, the Pioneers are also wonderful instrumentalists, with arrangements that, at times, shockingly resemble those of Stephane Grappelli.

The sound, unfortunately, on this CD is sub-standard. There are songs that actually sound as if they were recorded in someone's bathroom. But almost all is forgiven when the Pioneers harmonize on a tune as lovely as Bob Nolan's "Cool Water."

I really enjoyed listening to the western music of the forties and fifties. The Sons of the Pioneers are a favorite group of mine for the last 45 years.

Recognized as a national treasure by the Smithsonian, the Sons of the Pioneers were founded by Roy Rogers, Bob Nolan, and Tim Spencer, three young men who only wanted to be on the radio. They managed to develop a unique harmonic style, copied coutless times by other performers. In so doing they and their successors have had a profound effect on country and western music and American music in general. It is a shame that their greatness goes largely unnoticed today. The Sons of the Pioneers still exists as a performing group; they operate out of Branson, Missouri.

Steve Richie

When I found this CD, my heart took a hitch! These songs, ones I've heard for too many years because my father told me about the Sons of the Pioneers, and never mind Roy Rogers! Dad loved this group, and I learned to love them too, sitting with dad on the back porch, the smoke from Dad's cigarettere curling up into the empty "up there," as we listened to the radio, or his old Sears-Robuck 33 & 1/3 stereo record-player. Dad's hoarse cigarette-roughened almost-tenor would chime in. And I'd sing with him, trying <badly> to sing harmony, and we would sing these songs. . .

When I got this CD, the old harmonies were there! One could see one's self sitting there, about the campfire, singing these old ballads, remembering friends gone and trails to be ridden yet. . .and something more! Track 16, "Somebody Bigger Than You and I" was my father's favorite song. . .a Baptist church quartet discovered they had to become a quintent to sing it properly <at his funeral; And damme if they didn't do a goddam good job of it!>.

I listen to this CD to relax. . .those harmonies, those simple guitar/fiddle <I dare not use violin>melodies and harmonies/and those voices. . .

Good god, I can't remember the last time when "voices," meaning the plural, not the singular, meant something in recorded music.

Oh hell, buy this CD. . .sit back. Listen. Sing along.

Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers were my favorites. During the HeyDay of the Cowboys that was all I would listen to. The Sons of the Pioneers had beautiful harmony. I was at their performances when they came to Pittsburgh, PA and bought all their 78RPM records. I still have their recordings -- only now they are on CDs. I listen to them over and over and enjoy them just as much now as I did in the 40s.

This CD is the best. They have chosen an excellent variety of the songs for this CD. When they are singing Tumbling Tumbleweeds I can sit back and in my mind's eye see the tumbleweeds rolling over the desert. I get a little high just listening to Rye Whisky and the Classic -- COOL, COOL, WATER. This CD is the best of the best. If you like the Pioneers you will love this CD.

Love old cowboy, story songs. Great voices in harmony. We saw movies with the Sons of the Pioneers, Roy Rogers, and all of those great cowboys. Our back ground was on a ranch for five generations, so it is just natural to love songs about things you know about.

No offense to James, but I would strongly suggest that you maybe clean up your language just a little bit when you are writing a review especially if you are a true Christian. The Sons Of The Pioneers are truly one of country music's finest duos of all time and I am so honoured to have every recording they ever did on 15 CD's and many of them were taken from old scratchy 78's and not put out on CD. A very dear friend of mine compiled all of the Pioneers's recordings in cronological order and put together 15 CD's of all their recorded output including the Bear releases. This CD features their very first single they ever recorded in 1934 Way Out There and I especially love the original version of Tumbling Tumble Weeds which is on this CD. I totally agree with James that Somebody Bigger Than You And I is probably the most beautiful gospel song I have ever heard in my whole life and Elvis of course did a beautiful version of it on his How Great Thou Art album in 1966. In my opinion the original members of the Sons Of The Pioneers will always be the greatest ever and nobody can come close to these great early recordings of Lenerd Sly AKA Roy Rodgers, Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer. Buy this CD! You won't be disappointed!

THIS IS GREAT!!!! THEIR SONGS CAN PUT YOU ON THE RANGE,IN THE SADDLE RIDIN ALONE ON THE OLD PRAIRIE. DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THEY ACTUALLY PRODUCED ANY RECORDS WITH THE SONGS THEY SANG IN THE JOHN WAYNE MOVIE,"RIO GRANDE"?

TO EDD FROM KY I SAW AN ALBUM CALLED "RIO GRANDE" MAYBE THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR.