Cattle Call/Thereby Hangs a Tale in Bloomington, MN

This CD is made up of two similarly conceived albums that were among the finest LPs
Arnold
ever cut, when he was in the midst of the extended peak of his career.
Cattle Call
was an apparent attempt (and almost wholly successful one) to tap into the revival of interest in
Western
songs fostered by
Marty Robbins
and
Johnny Cash
at
Columbia
. In addition to
's re-recording (his fourth version in less than 20 years) of the title tune, in a spare but polished rendition, he also does an excellent job with
Bob Nolan
's
"Cool Water"
"Tumbling Tumbleweeds,"
the traditional
"Carry Me Back to the Lone Prairie,"
and pieces like the singing-
cowboy
anthem
"Leaning on the Old Top Rail."
Grady Martin
is the lead guitarist on these sessions, which were produced by
Chet Atkins
and have a clean, lean sound, not overproduced and all rather similar to the sound that
Robbins
got on his records. What is lacking is the tone of urgency and involvement that
brought to this same material.
Thereby Hangs a Tale
grew out of the
folk
music boom and
's successful 1959 single of
Jimmie Driftwood
"Tennessee Stud."
The Anita Kerr Singers
turn up here and there, but are used in a fairly restrained manner. The stereo separation is extremely crisp and the instrumental textures are vivid throughout.
's original notes on
have been replaced by new notes, focusing more on the songs themselves.
produced both albums, but only played on
Tale
. ~ Bruce Eder