Tumbling Tumbleweed

Sons Of The Pioneers | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 1, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mca Special Products
• ASIN: B000002QU7
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,669 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #34 in Music > Country > Cowboy

Track Listings

1. I'm an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)

2. Tumbling Tumbleweeds

3. Blue Prairie

4. One More Ride

5. A Melody from the Sky

6. Blue Bonnet Girl

7. Over the Santa Fe Trail

8. Empty Saddles

9. Cool Water

10. Song of the Pioneers

Editorial Reviews

This band of cowboys made great music over the course of their 60-year history. Ride along to Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1934 version); Way Out There; Echoes from the Hills; When Our Old Age Pension Check Comes to Our Door; The Hills of Wyomin'; Rye Whiskey; When the Moon Comes over Sun Valley; Private Buckaroo; Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima; Gold Star Mother with Silvery Hair; I Wear Your Memory in My Heart; Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1946 version), and more. 24 tracks. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pioneer Classics-No Strings Attached, August 23, 2000

By 

James Otterstrom (Big Bear City, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tumbling Tumbleweed (Audio CD)

If you're looking for basic down to earth versions of the Pioneers most popular songs this CD is for you. A delightful simplicity in the playing here breathes fresh life into songs we might have heard too many times. 'I'm An Old Cowhand' with Roy on lead vocal and fine fiddling by Hugh Farr, interestingly enough, has a 'One More Ride' style yodel harmony at the end, and is that Lloyd Perryman or Pat Brady slappin' that bass? Great Stuff! For a Pioneer nut like myself the spartan 'Tumbling Tumbleweeds' on this CD is worth the price of admission, and the haunting eerie mood of 'Blue Prairie' couldn't be improved upon. 'A Melody From The Sky' and 'Blue Bonnet Girl' are both tender and masterful, while the plaintive 'Empty Saddles' never sounded better. 'Over The Santa Fe Trail' is the anomaly here, it almost sounds like an experiment in weirdness, but the strange phrasing and off-key sound make it something of a conversation piece, I'm wondering if the recording might be off-speed. I think 'Cool Water' is one of the best songs ever written, maybe the definitive example of Bob Nolan's poetic genius, and this take is very nice, although I think I slightly prefer the version on 'The RCA Victor Years Vol. 1' (RCA CD (9744-2). According to an old friend of Bob Nolan's, 'Cool Water' was written by Bob back in the '30s, while he and his mule 'Dan' were walking the Mojave Desert on a trek from his cabin here in Big Bear. That story gives a wonderful vignette of Bob talking to his mule ("Keep'a movin' Dan, don't you listen to him Dan, he's a devil not a man, and he spreads the burnin' sand with water. Dan can you see that big green tree, where the water's runnin' free, and it's waitin' there for me and you."), as they trudged toward the cool wet shade of the Mojave Narrows almost 70 years ago. Because MCA chose not to include any notes with this release, the oddness of 'Santa Fe Trail', and somewhat uneven sound quality, I considered giving it a 4-star rating, but after many listenings, the overall content, and the sweet rarity of these selected versions begged 5 stars. A very nice collection!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars nostaligia time, February 14, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tumbling Tumbleweed (Audio CD)

I agree with the other customer reviews: this is a treaure-trove of early Roy Rogers and Sons of the Pioneers. I usually complain about more modern versions with their slick and overly lush accompaniment. No such complaints here! "Sparse" is the word that comes to mind for this disc--basically a fiddle, a guitar or two, and a stand-up bass. The version of Tumbling Tumbleweeds is different from the other versions I have by this group. I disagree with the one reviewer about Along the Santa Fe Trail. I didn't find it that bad, but I am convinced that the fiddle player was on a different page from everyone else. Probably not the best "starter" disc for this sub-subgenre (I'd recommend the Country Music Hall of Fame disc), but it's a pretty good supplement. Recommended to all aficionados.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good music, awful sound, August 30, 2003

By 

Yvonne Smith (Apple Valley, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tumbling Tumbleweed (Audio CD)

One of the benefits of CD is that the background pops and hiss of vinal can be eliminated. However, nobody bothered to do that before releasing this CD. On some cuts the background hiss is so bad it is difficult to hear the music.

The music is great, the sound quality is awful. Spend your money elsewhere.