My Rifle, My Pony and Me in Bloomington, MN

There is astonishingly little overlap between this 26-song collection, consisting of songs from various western movie and television
soundtracks
, and other, rival domestic releases. As usual,
Bear Family
has done its best to gather together the best and most unusual of this material -- a promotional-only single of
Ricky Nelson
and
Dean Martin
singing
"My Rifle, My Pony and Me"
from
Rio Bravo
(adapted by
Dimitri Tiomkin
from the title theme from a score he wrote for an earlier
John Wayne
/
Howard Hawks
movie,
Red River
);
Merle Kilgore
(sounding a lot like
Tex Ritter
) doing the title song from
Nevada Smith
;
"The Legend of Shenandoah"
by
James Stewart
, telling the plot of the film while a chorus sings the title tune, as a sort of audio trailer for the movie
Shenandoah
(more of an eastern than a western);
the Sons of the Pioneers
doing the title theme from
The Searchers
Marty Robbins
' version of
"The Ballad of the Alamo"
's second (and best) recording of
"High Noon"
; and
performing
"Song of the Wagonmaster"
"Wagons West"
Wagonmaster
Roy Rogers
"The Yellow Rose of Texas"
(to an utterly unfamiliar melody);
Johnny Cash
's
"The Sons of Katie Elder"
(a
soundtrack
never reissued on CD); and the only CD release of
"Rio Bravo."
There are no notes, but everything else is first-rate about this disc. ~ Bruce Eder