Cowboy Songs

I love Cowboy songs. Here is Ghost Rider in the Sky... does anyone know Rawhide?

Yeehaw - I like the way you fit the chords into the off beats.

Bertram

Cool version of Rawhide -I'll have to put that on my list to learn.

Our banjo player likes to do 'Back in the Saddle Again' but not as an instrumental.

eddie, that was great! remember vaughn monroe? i got goose bumps listening to this:

I shore do pardner... Pretty scary how much I visualized that song almost 50 years ago with the clip you showed... I still get goosebumps...

This old thread never got much further than Eddie's initial (and great!) video of Ghost Riders In The Sky, so I'll bump it with a couple more cowboy standards: here are "The Colorado Trail" and "Red River Valley".

I've recorded both of these as overdubbed duets of my Ajr with my tenor guitar, using Audacity. As it happens, both tunes were the title tracks of old black-and-white westerns with The Sons Of The Pioneers, so I've put a load of stills from the two movies on the video.

1. The Colorado Trail:



2. Red River Valley:



Martin

Martin, you're arrangements are getting more and more impressive. I like the laid-back western feel of these.
And a belated "excelent job," to Eddie. I'm glad this thread was revived so I could see that version of Ghost Riders.

loved that Eddie, at i session i used to go to, we had great craic singing The wild Rover to the tune of Ghost riders in the sky, was an anything goes type of session down in the docks in Belfast, all sorts of weird and wonderful folk would would danter in off the boat and sing a song.

Here's Red River Valley on a zouk...

Not strictly a Cowboy song but here's Country Roads...

And Me and Bobby McGee, since Kris Kristofferson is a kind of a cowboy...

Here's another cowboy standard: Home On The Range, recorded on tenor guitar and my Ajr. Inevitably, this too was recorded by both Gene Autry and by The Sons Of The Pioneers, who also starred in the 1946 movie of that name -- I've used the posters and stills from that film (rather than the recent Disney cartoon) for my video.

There is a nice PDF with the tune and chords here: Link



Martin

Nice Cowboy Songs so far!
Well, my background is classical guitar, and for recording backup tracks to my mandolin endeavours, I usually fingerpick a nylon string guitar. But lately, I started exploring some basic flatpicking patterns as a possible way of accompaniment.
Searching for an easy tune to apply this new method, I found Home on the Range, that I played on my tenor guitar and my newly acquired slope shoulder dreadnought:

This turned out very nicely CC.

All good music above.

My 2015 try at cowboy song "Down By The Brazos" - instrumental version:


(or direct link)

More info including several different tabs etc, and also a very nice video version by Martin Jonas, in Martin's 2015 Song-a-Week Down By The Brazos thread.

Nice and peaceful, CC.
JL277z now I HAVE to learn that song, I like your finger work there, it gives the song an uplift. Thanks.

Me too, I want to learn that nicely played song!

A very catchy and upbeat version there, JL. That bass certainly drives it along.

Thanks for reviving this old thread, CC, and for your lovely version of Home On The Range. I have recorded a few other cowboy songs over the years since my very old 2011 takes in this thread, so I may as well collect them in one place here:

Poor Lonesome Cowboy:



Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie:



Down By The Brazos:



Wayfaring Stranger:



And finally, in memory of Evelyn Tiffany-Castiglioni, here is her wonderful original tune Concurso, which really should be a Spaghetti Western soundtrack:



Martin

Thanks Simon, Crisscross, and John. It is a fun tune to play. And yeah that bass (in the backing track) was what kept me energized to keep practicing until I finally got comfortable enough with the tune to sort of branch off into all those little variations.

Martin wrote: "I have recorded a few other cowboy songs over the years since my very old 2011 takes in this thread, so I may as well collect them in one place here"

Good idea, and nice playing!

Nice Martin, good to see them all in a collection.

Five fine cowboy songs in a row, good idea Martin, nicely played!

To get a little more relaxed in the upper regions of the fretboard, I tried Home on the Range in the third position:

Very nice, Christian!

Stunning photography and nice playing in third position! I may consider it when I've mastered first position!