Customer Reviews

Singing Cowboy

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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.