Notes from an interview with the ole Singing Cowboy legend Buck Page of the Riders of the Purple Sage
I think there is a big difference in
Country Music and Western Music. My kind of
music is Western Music and the stuff
I write about like "rollin' rollin' praries...
back to the land of my dreams, back
in ole Montana, that's where I long to be,"
tell more about the country side and
the wide open spaces. Songs like "Moon-
light on the Canyon," you can
just see this cowboy setting on his horse at the
edge of the Grand Canyon looking down
and thinking about his girl friend. It was
much more romantic and had more of
a story.
Some of the very first cowboy songs
actually were sang out on the cattle drives.
They were singing to settle the cattle
from a possible stampede, or singing to find
a lonesome doggie that had wondered
from the herd. It is known that a stray calf
will come to the singing cowboy, so
they would ride and sing to round up some
strays from the herd.
Again, Western music sang about the
life of a cowboy, or the life outside in the
west. Like the words to one of
my friend Gene Autry's songs says:
"I'm back in the saddle again,Where Western music is about the wide open spaces Country music is about the
Out where a friend is a friend
Where the long horn cattle feed
On the lowly jimson week
I'm back in the saddle again.
bar rooms and bed rooms. Pal of mine calls it "cheatin', lyin' cryin' dyin' music.
Songs like "There is a Tear in My Beer" is a good example. Country evolved
from "hillbilly" music and grew mostly out of the taverns, dance halls and honky
tonks. I didn't like it because it was much more simple to play as well. Mostly
just two and three cord music and not much a challenge to play at all.
The country musicians brought the drums
and electric guitars to their music and
begin to grow out the saloons and during
the hard times of the great depression
I think, with the working class singing
of their problems with life. I think as folks
moved out of the rural areas and had
more hard times they sang of these hard
times.
to be continued
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E. Standley. All Rights Reserved.
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