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A poem long before it was a ballad, The Streets of Laredo is more sad than frightful, but the image of a cowboy wrapped in white linen... 'cold as the clay' yet walking the streets of a hot, dusty border town...goose bumps and sleepless nights guaranteed. Don Edwards does the best version I've heard in years, along with some turn of the century postcard imagery of 'The Gateway to Old Mexico'...fascinating and evocative accompaniment:
There are some country songs out there that send a chill up my spine every time and no matter how often I hear them. It's the ones that don't quite tell the whole story that get to me most...the ones that haunt you of an evening as you turn the lyrics over and over trying to make sense of the mystery. Dolly Parton did it with 'Jolene' and country crossover artist Mindy Smith covers the song beautifully...dare we say, hauntingly? This one'll stick with you:
Carl T. Sprague – not exactly a name you associate with a hit record, but Sprague is the name of the man who recorded the first cowboy/country ‘hit.’ In 1925, the young Texan traveled to Camden, New Jersey to record ‘When the Work’s All Done This Fall.’ The song – remarkably clear and concise for a recording from the first quarter of the 20th century – went on to become a huge hit, selling over 900,000 copies (a recording was considered successful in those days if it sold 5,000).
Another of Sprague’s early hits was ‘The Cowboy,’ recorded in 1927.
Sprague was born in 1895 on a ranch near Houston, Texas. As a young man, he accompanied his uncle, who had worked as a cowboy from the late 1880s, on cattle drives between Texas and the railheads in Kansas. That’s where he first heard the poems, ballads and songs of the drovers who lived their lives on the move, sleeping under the stars and spending hot days coaxing stubborn cattle into line. Sprague imbibed the complete atmosphere of life on the trail (along, perhaps, with a little Texas whiskey), and from it emerged a direct and sincere voice almost perfectly suited to portraying the sometimes grand and sometimes tragic life of the cowboy.
XIT Ranch, Texas. 1903. On day herd with the XIT outfit in Texas. Credit: Library of Congress.
Sprague served in World War II and went to college at Texas A & M. During his college years, he played in a band and conducted a weekly radio program. In 1925 Victor offered him a recording contract, but between 1925 and 1929 he recorded only 33 songs. As with so many other musicians of the era, the Great Depression stepped in to squash any hopes he had of making music his full-time profession.
Sprague did not record again until 1972, when he cut an album for a German folk label. He was 77. He died on February 19, 1979.
Canyon de Chelly, Edward, Curtis, Credit: Library of Congress
Camping in the desert is a mind-altering experience. The pure silence, except for the murmur of wind; the infinite space, extending beyond anything you can see or hear (as though your tent might as well be pitched on a barren rock drifting in the middle of the universe); and the unyielding, unseeing mass all around you, indifferent to your human feelings and desires – they all seep into you and change you in indescribable ways. When you’re sitting there on a flat stone in front of your tiny fire, you think: there must be a sound somewhere that captures this experience of the desert.
Monument in Canon del Muerte, Arizona, c. 1881, John K. Hillers, Credit: Library of Congress
There is – it’s ancient, but it fits the desert today as well as ever. It comes from a flute invented by the Anasazi Indians 1400 years ago, and its tone is something you won’t be able to forget. It’s as mellow as the pastel pallet of the sandstone desert, it’s as full of echoes as the canyons of the Ancient Ones themselves, and it’s as still and deep as the miles of sun-filled desert that stretch out before you from any mesa.
Canyon de Chelly, Timothy O'Sullivan, Credit: Library of Congress
The first ‘Anasazi flutes’ were discovered (or re-discovered) in the 1890s by archeologists exploring the Pueblo Bonito (room 33) in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. In 1923, Earl H. Morris, one of the foremost Southwestern archeologists of his time, discovered four similar flutes buried with the body of an old man – a priest or a chief – in the Canyon de Chelly area in New Mexico. Here’s what Morris said about the moment of his discovery:
"I picked up one of the flutes, shook the dust and mouse dung out of it, and placed it to my lips. The rich, quavering tones which rewarded even my unskilled touch seemed to electrify the atmosphere. In the distance Navajo workmen paused with shovels poised, seeking the source of the sound. A horse raised its head and neighed from an adjacent hillside and two crows flapped out from a crevice overhead."
Ruins of the cliff dwellings, Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, c. 1880s, John K. Hillers, Credit: Library of Congress
These recordings show the flute’s haunting tones, evocative of deep time past.
In 1931, Morris led another expedition to Prayer Rock Valley in the northeastern corner of Arizona. There he excavated 15 caves, the largest of which contained 16 dwellings. In the caves were thousands of artifacts, among them several flutes, which gave the site its name: Broken Flute Cave. The flutes, built between 620 and 670 A.D., were made of Box Elder and each had 6 holes (playing the notes Bb, C, C#, D, F, G and A ). Some of the flutes were decorated - with feathers of Stellar's Jays, Pinyon Jays and Sapsuckers – and with yucca fibers. The flutes had been hidden, in a slot gouged in the floor and extending back under a natural stone at the base of the wall. We may never know why they were hidden – but from the way they distill the essence of the desert, it’s not difficult to think that perhaps they were thought to be sacred.
Broken Flute Cave, Prayer Rock Valley Arizona, c. 1920s-1940s Credit: HometownArchive.com
Kokopelli the Humpbacked Flute Player, Dinosaur National Monument, Credit: cvconnell
Anasazi flutes are now made by a few flute makers in the Southwest. One is Marlon Magdalena, of the Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico. Magdalena thinks the more appropriate term for the Anasazi flute is Ancestral Pueblo Flute (since Anasazi is a multi-meaning term that has been translated both as ‘Ancient Ones’ and ‘Old enemies’). You can hear him playing one of his flutes below. You can also visit him at his website, Aluaki.com.
For more info on Anasazi flutes, visit Native Flutes Walking or Flutopedia.com – websites dedicated to encouraging the use and preservation Native American flutes.
What else can you say? The guy truly is on fire. At age 61 he’s releasing his first major label country music recording entitled…who’d a thunk it…“Jeff Bridges.”
Anyone who thinks this is a vanity project hasn’t seen his Oscar wining performance as a down on his luck, alcoholic country singer (is there any other kind?) in Crazy Heart:
It’s a role he initially turned down only to be coaxed back in to it by his long time friend, the extraordinary T-Bone Burnett. He guided the music in Crazy Heart and has produced the Bridges album. Those who’ve had a listen say it’s more Tom Waits than Waylon Jennings.
Bridges tells the LA Times he wanted to be a musician when he was young but got into acting because, “it was the path of least resistance.” He was barely in his 20s when he earned his first Oscar nomination for The Last Picture Show. 40 years later he’s coming off a monster hit with the remake of True Grit.
Of course a lot of actors have music careers on the side, including Kevin Costner, who is also travelling the country roads.
And Gwyneth Paltrow has been taking the stage recently, showing off her country chops on the heels of Country Strong:
Bridges will be going on the road in a limited series of concerts to support the release, including an appearance on Austin City Limits this fall. His producer, T-Bone says he welcomes scepticism about the project. “It’s not a lark,” he adds. Then again, neither is Jeff Bridges.
Sunday, October 23, 2011 at 7:27PM Tweet 
