Customer Reviews

A Cowboy's Wild Song to His Herd

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On this, his third CD for Rounder, Skip Gorman comes across as one of the masters of Western song. A Cowboy's Wild Song, marginally more produced than its predecessors, also expands its thematic base slightly. Not every song here is about cowboys. Other Western characters get a nod this time, including hoboes, as in early hillbilly star Cliff Carlisle's "Ramblin' Jack" (surely the song from which Ramblin' Jack Elliott chose his nickname) and Kelly Harrell's "Away Out on the Mountain." The latter, best known from the classic Jimmie Rodgers rendition, undergoes a slight but disappointing lyric change. Where Rodgers sang about the "zebras wild," affording the song a dizzyingly surrealistic aura, Gorman has them as "antelopes wild" -- setting the tale in a Western landscape this side of reality but taking some of the fun out of Harrell's loony vision in the process. A small complaint, of course. Besides a fine collection of ballads, Gorman includes here a larger than usual selection of splendid versions of traditional and original fiddle tunes. A Gorman record is always a pleasure, and this one is no exception.

This is one of the best cowboy CDs that I own. Skip Gorman has a natural cowboy voice. The songs are pleasantly accompanied--the orchestration is not overdone, just right to fit each song.