& Prairie Princess Yodelers
[yourchannel user=”Amuse Her” playlist=”PL1yJk3eGuxoI2APlVN4rO810sESjRQkq1″]
Tex Ritter! Now this is cowboy movies starting in the 30s. And he was an actual, kind of I don’t know. He wasn’t like an academic musicologist, but he was very interested in cowboy songs. As I said this was a fad going on in the 20s. He probably got that Lomax book. Texas wasn’t that uncivilized.
And he’s from there and interested in the cowboy tradition which still goes on! You know. There’s some kind of romance to that. Somewhat wholesome. They don’t have cowboy TV shows on anymore. Any of that stuff. I don’t know what the kids do. Star Wars probably. You know, as opposed to the cowboy hero of the west.
I mean some of his records are really pretty bazaar. There just some orchestras and some and all this. His voice is great. He does alotta country records early on, but then he has some. He did an album with Stan Kenton the progressive jazz guy! And I’ve actually never dropped a needle on that. It sounds pretty scary, but uh.
“Hillbilly Heaven” was a huge hit. But I wanted to have honorable mention to “The Red Deck of Cards” which maybe we’ll feature. We’ll have to dig that one out. And then one that you couldn’t find, if you like looking at 78’s, “High Noon” from the Gary Cooper movie. The greatest cowboy song ever written, by a Russian jew.
Tex Ritter – Rye Whiskey (1936)
Tex Ritter – Dynamite Dan (1941)
As soon as I had a TV I knew who Gene Autry was cause there were kids programs on TV. Films had been made in the 30s and 40s but they showed him on TV and I saw him and I ate him up. The cowboy is singing cowboy. Don’t all cowboys sing. Evidently not.
But Gene Autry was really good. They had guys, Ken Maynard and there’s a whole bunch of cowboy people before Gene Autry but Gene Autry somehow took off. And he epitomized the cowboy hero. You know. He’d always wing the guy rather than kill ‘em you know. And shoot the gun out of his hand type of thing that Roy Rogers did too, but Gene Autry came to that first.
And early one he was like a real lefty. “The Death of Mother Jones” and all. He eventually became really rich and sort of changed his politics a little. But anyways he was an American hero epitomized and he could sing his ass off and play the guitar and he had great bands behind him. And one of the great sidekicks of all time, Smiley Bernette. Anyway, check out Gene Autry. I’m back in the saddle again. I’m five.
Gene Autry & Smiley Burnette – Uncle Noah’s Ark (1935)
Gene Autry & Smiley Burnette – I Call on Oscar
Gene Autry, Sterling Holloway & The Cass County Boys – I Tipped My Hat and Slowly Rode Away (1947)
Cass County Boys – It’s My Lazy Day (1947)
Out of the Sons of the Pioneers came Roy Rogers, formally known as Leonard Slye. He was in some westerns with Gene Autry and then all of a sudden something happened and he became a big big star. And his horse was named Trigger. You’ll see him later on with Trigger doing tricks and stuff like like that.
Roy Rogers maybe even out did Gene Autry. There was a TV show when I was a little kid and they sang “Happy Trails To You” at the end of every episode. There’s just something American about the cowboy and the hero. The good guy cowboy you know.
Plus Roy Rogers had the greatest sidekick there ever was! Gabby Hayes, who was incredible. The old geezer with the beard and a crumpled up hat. What a character.
That’s something we should do sometime. A sidekick sideshow of some of these guys in their specials. And some of them sang too. Smiley Bernette. But you get it, Roy Rogers and Gabby Hayes. Yer dern tootin’.
Roy Rogers w/ Smiley Burnette – Anything (1938)
Roy Rogers & Gabby Hayes – We’re Not Comin’ Out Tonight (1939)
Roy Rogers & Smiley Burnette – I’m Ridin’ Down the Trail (1939)
Roy Rogers w/ The Sons of the Pioneers – Git Along Little Dogies (1940)
Roy Rogers w/ The Sons of the Pioneers – Sing as You Work (1942)
Roy Rogers – I’m an Old Cowhand (1943)
Roy Rogers w/ The Sons of the Pioneers – I’m a Cowboy Rockefeller (1943)
Roy Rogers w/ The Sons of the Pioneers – Cowboy Jubilee (1944)
Roy Rogers w/ The Sons of the Pioneers & Gabby Hayes – Cowboy Polka (1944)
Roy Rogers w/ The Sons of the Pioneers – Levi Britches (1944)
Roy Rogers & The Sons of the Pioneers – Tumbling Tumbleweeds; Don’t Fence Me In (1944)
Roy Rogers & Trigger – Don’t Fence Me In (1944)
Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Gabby Hayes & the Sons of the Pioneers – Don’t Fence Me In (1945)
Roy Rogers w/ The Sons of the Pioneers – Polka Time (1945)
Roy Rogers – I Go Singing’ Down the Road (c.1945)
Roy Rogers w/ The Sons of the Pioneers – Ham & Eggs (1946)
Roy Rogers w/ The Sons of the Pioneers – My Saddle Pals and I (1946)
Roy Rogers w/ The Sons of the Pioneers – Texas U.S.A. (1946)
Roy Rogers & Dale Evans – Miguelito (1946)
Roy Rogers w/ The Sons of the Pioneers – Gates of the Old Corral (1947)
Roy Rogers w/ The Sons of the Pioneers – The Ballad of Pecos Bill (1948)
Roy Rogers w/ The Sons of the Pioneers – Dust (1948)
Roy Rogers and Foy Willing & the Riders of the Purple Sage – I Still Love the West (1948)
Roy Rogers w/ Andy Devine – Ridin’ Ropin’ Cowboy (1948)
Roy Rogers and Foy Willing & the Riders of the Purple Sage – Home Town Jubilee (1950)
Roy Rogers w/ Foy Willing – May the Good Lord Take a Likin’ to You (1950)
Roy Rogers & Dale Evans – Happy Trails to You (1951)
Roy Rogers – Heading for Texas and Home (c. late 1930s) audio only
Carolina Cotton – Yodel Mountain (1944)
Carolina Cotton – I Love to Yodel (1945)
Carolina Cotton – I’d Love to Be a Cowgirl (But I’m Afraid of Cows) 1946
Carolina Cotton, Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys (1951)
Carolina Cotton, Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – 3 Miles South of Cash (1951)
The DeZurik Sisters – Hillbilly Bill (1953)
Kay Brewer – Boogie Woogie Yodel Song (1953)
The Strawberry Roan – Dick Foran & the Sons of the Pioneers (1943) audio only
Patsy Montana – Montana Plains (1933)
Patsy Montana – I Want to be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart (1935)
Sol K. Bright & His Hollywaiians – Hawaiian Cowboy – audio only
Bing Crosby, Louis Prima, The Sons of the Pioneers, Martha Raye & Bob Burns – I’m an Old Cowhand (1936)
Glenn Allen Howard on the Sons of the Pioneers
Sons of the Pioneers – Way Out There (1937)
Sons of the Pioneers – Tumbling Tumbleweeds
Sons of the Pioneers – Ride ‘em Cowboy (1944)
Sons of the Pioneers – Cowboy Camp Meetin’ (1946)
Sons of the Pioneers – Cowboy Camp Meetin’ (1949)
Sons of the Pioneers – Rootin’ Tootin’ Rogers (1948)
Sons of the Pioneers – Room Full of Roses (1950)
Sons of the Pioneers – Way Up in the Sky (1950)
Pat Brady & the Sons of the Pioneers – He’s a No Good Son of a Gun
Foy Willing & the Riders of the Purple Sage – Everything’s Going My Way (1948)
Jimmy Wakely Trio – Git Along, Little Pony (1944)
Eddy Arnold – Cattle Call (1955)
