Singing Cowboy [Original recording remastered]

Jimmy Wakely | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 24, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Varese Sarabande
• ASIN: B00006JKB4
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #440,068 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I'm An Old Cowhand

2. Tumbling Tumbleweeds

3. Song Of The Sierras

4. Empty Saddles

5. Blue Shadows On The Trail

6. When The Bloom Is On The Sage

7. Lonely Is The Hunter

8. The Yellow Rose Of Texas

9. It's A Lonely Trail

10. There's A Goldmine In The Sky

11. The Last Round-Up

12. Call Of The Canyon

13. Saddle Pals

14. Cowboy's Prayer

15. The Trail To Mexico

16. Cool Water

17. Along The Santa Fe Trail

18. Take Me Back To My Boot And Saddle

19. There's An Empty Cot In The Bunkhouse Tonight

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fine reissue of the Crooning Cowboy, December 10, 2002

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Singing Cowboy (Audio CD)

Though Wakely was known early on for his cowboy films and tunes, by the 1950s he'd turned towards jazz-based crooning. These tracks, mostly taken from his mid-50s radio program (and previously issued in 1976 on Wakely's Shasta label), successfully meld his Crosby-esque crooning (including trombone-like slides from one note to another) with the Western songs on which his fame was originally minted.

Wakely's accompanied by a jazz combo that's equal parts swing, late-night jazz and dusty trail-song. The opener, written for Bing Crosby's film "Rhythm on the Range," swings on guitar, fiddle, bass, drums, and an unusual flute solo. Wakely's in fine voice and mood, breezing along on Johnny Mercer's lyric, and chuckling when he flubs a line. The humor of live-radio also shines through Wakely's ad-lib tribute to Mitch Miller on "The Yellow Rose of Texas." The rest of the song list reprises hits of Gene Autry, The Sons of the Pioneers, Bing Crosby, Roy Rogers, and others. Wakely's own "Song of the Sierras" features an especially haunting arrangement. This reissue adds five tracks to the album's original fourteen, including a previously unreleased take of Bob Nolan's "Cool Water."

This album is a fine companion to Wakely's earlier cowboy material. Taken with Varese's reissue of Wakely's "Christmas Collection," this volume fleshes out the singer's later years as a crooner, and the liner notes by Jon Guyot Smith provide terrific details on Wakely and the Western songs he sings.

3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings.