Cool Water – The Sons of the Pioneers

by Jim Poulton

My wife and I grew up in different states – she in a small town in Montana, and I in a middle class subdivision of Salt Lake City. But we each had a favorite album that we listened to over and over as children. And we discovered a little while ago that it was the same album: Cool Water by The Sons of the Pioneers.

Left to right: Tim Spencer, Bob Nolan, Hugh Farr, Roy Rogers (Gus Mack, announcer). Photo courtesy of bobnolan-sop.net

The Sons of the Pioneers have left a long (and dusty) trail in the history of cowboy music. Starting in 1934, their original members included Tim Spencer, Bob Nolan, Hugh Farr and Roy Rogers (of Dale Evans fame). They were about as famous as you could get in those days:  their music appeared in over 90 western films, and they are the authors of some of the most iconic cowboy songs that have ever been written. Bob Nolan, the main songwriter in the group, wrote Cool Water and Tumbling Tumbleweeds, two songs that have defined the west as much as cattle and rattlesnakes.

Bob Nolan. Photo courtesy of bobnolan-sop.net

Here is Cool Water, from an original 78rpm Gramophone:

And here’s Tumbling Tumbleweeds:

You can also listen to dozens of different versions of each song by following these links: Cool Water;  Tumbling Tumbleweeds.

As a group, The Sons of the Pioneers are still around today. They’ve won about every award possible in the country/cowboy music genre, including the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Western Music Association Hall of Fame, the Smithsonian Institute’s ‘National Treasure’ Designation, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, and the Golden Boot Award. They even have their own star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. More than that, though, they are the group that was instrumental in putting cowboy music on the map. Before them, there really wasn’t much of a genre called cowboy music. After them, cowboy music was ridin’ easy in the saddle. As Doug Green of Riders in the Sky put it: ‘Any of us who sing Western music, it all goes back to the Pioneers.’ 

Photo courtesy of bobnolan-sop.net

Actually, people were paying attention to cowboy songs prior to the appearance of The Sons of the Pioneers. In 1921, N. Howard (‘Jack’) Thorp collected and published a collection of cowboy poems and songs. The volume is now in the public domain, and you can download it for free here. Or you can purchase a more recent edition here.

Here are the first two stanzas of The Cowboy’s Life, heard by Thorp ‘at a little round-up at Seven Lakes, New Mexico, by a puncher named Spence’:

The bawl of a steer
To a cowboy’s ear
Is music of sweetest strain;
And the yelping notes
Of the gray coyotes
To him are a glad refrain.

And his jolly songs
Speed him along
As he thinks of the little gal
With golden hair
Who is waiting there
At the bars of the home corral.

Happy Birthday, Johnny Cash

by Jim Poulton

I can still remember when I first heard Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire. My sister and I were riding in the back seat of our family’s Ford Fairlane. Ring of Fire came on the radio – we were listening to KNAK – and by the end of the song, all four of us were trying to sing along with the chorus. My dad had a barrel-chest kind of voice – a little like Cash’s – and he was the only one who could get the deep notes of ‘and it burns, burns, burns.’ It is one of those memories that just stay lodged in your brain.

Yesterday was Johnny Cash’s birthday. He would have been 79. Although he passed away in 2003, Cash has continued to be one of the most influential country singers in history. Ring of Fire, I Walk the Line, Folsom Prison Blues … it’s easy to see why.

Happy Birthday, Johnny Cash, wherever you are.

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 1!

by Jim Poulton

Dolly Parton - I Will Always Love You

Dolly Parton has always been a consumate performer, but it may come as a surprise to some that she is also an accomplished songwriter. She wrote a remarkable number of hits, including Jolene, Nine to Five, All I Can Do, and of course, I Will Always Love You, our choice for the Number 1 Country Love Song of All Time.

Released in 1974 as a followup single to Jolene, I Will Always Love You reached #1 in both the U.S. and Canadian Country charts. Parton re-recorded the song in 1982 for the film version of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. That version also reached number one, marking the first time in history that the same song reached number one two times when recorded by the same artist. The song, however, wasn’t done yet.

Whitney Houston's 1992 version of the song was an instant phenomenon (it sold more than 600,000 copies in one week, breaking all records to date), and is one of fewer than thirty all-time singles to have sold 12 million (or more) copies worldwide. And in 1995, Parton recorded it again, in a duet with Vince Gill. This time the song peaked at number 15. In 2004, Country Music Television rated I Will Always Love You #1 of their 100 Greatest Country Love Songs.

We agree with CMT: I Will Always Love You is as close to a perfect Country Love Song as you can get.

Visit Parton's website here. Purchase I Will Always Love You on iTunes or Amazon MP3.

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 2

by Jim Poulton

Patsy Cline - Crazy

Photo courtesy of AVClub

Possibly the best known of all of Cline’s hits, Crazy was written by Willie Nelson in 1961, while he was still a young musician. Prior to that time, Nelson had written some songs for other performers, but he still hadn’t recorded a breakout hit of his own. When Cline released her version, it followed on a string of her prior hits (especially I Fall To Pieces), and its success helped to launch Nelson as both a performer and songwriter. While Crazy only made it to #2 on the Country Singles chart in 1962, it also crossed over to the US Hot 100 list (#9) and the Adult Contemporary list (#2), making it her biggest pop hit. Crazy has since been recognized as one of the great Country love songs. It was named #85 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Cline originally disliked Crazy, claiming it was too difficult to sing. Her first demo of the song was a disaster, and she deliberated for several days about whether she would even complete it. When she came back into the studio, she recorded the vocal tracks we now know with no splices or dubs. Listening to this version, it’s difficult to imagine that Cline found the song difficult. Her smooth and easy approach to the melody is best heard in the length and strength of her sustains (listen, for example, to how long she holds the last ‘you'). As we’ve said before, Cline was a genius, and this song, maybe more than any other, proves it.

Here’s Willie Nelson’s original version. Notice the photograph on the album cover in the video – we’ve come to know a different Willie Nelson, haven’t we?

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 4

by Jim Poulton

Conway Twitty - Hello Darlin'

Photo courtesy of Last.fm.

Recorded in 1969, Conway Twitty’s Hello Darlin’ became one of the most recognizable standards of country music. Part of the reason: Twitty’s decision to begin the song with spoken words. As he was recording the song, Twitty initially tried to sing the opening line (‘Hello darlin’, nice to see you’), but found it wasn’t working. When he switched to speaking the line, and then coming in with the power of his classic country voice on the second line (‘It’s been a long time’), the result was a powerful hook that immediately draws the listener into the song’s story - a man runs into an old flame and bravely tries to claim he’s fine (‘How am I doin’? I’m doin’ all right, except I can’t sleep, I cry all night ‘til dawn’).

Twitty, in case you didn’t know, was one of the most successful artists of the 20^th century. He had more singles reach number one than Elvis, Frank Sinatra, the Beatles or Garth Brooks. His #1 singles total (55) has only recently been surpassed by George Strait.

Visit a website honoring Twitty (1933-1993) here.

Purchase Hello Darlin' from iTunes or Amazon MP3.