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When I Was a Cowboy, Vol. 2

Various Artists
1 disc

1. Cowboy's Home Sweet Home - Jimmie Davis
2. Jesse James - Harry McClintock
3. Get Along Little Dogies - Cartwright Brothers
4. Night Guard, The - Jack Webb
5. Back to My Wyoming Home - Gerald & Dixon
6. Cowboy, The - Carl T. Sprague
7. Gal I Left Behind Me, The - Jules Allen
8. Strawberry Roan, The - Paul Hamblin
9. I'm a Wandering Bronco Rider - Rowdy Wright
10. Dying Ranger, The - Cartwright Brothers
11. Fugitive's Lament, The - The Delmore Brothers
12. Buffalo Galls Medley - Crockett Family
13. Billy Venero, Pt. 1 - Billie Maxwell
14. Billy Venero, Pt. 2 - Billie Maxwell
15. I'm a Lone Star Cowboy - J.D. Farley
16. Cowboy Trail, The - Buell Kazee
17. My Love Is a Cowboy - Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee
18. Snow Covered Face - Lois Dexter/Pat Patterson & Lois Dexter
19. Burial of Wild Bill, The - Frank Jenkins & His Pilot Mountaineers
20. Tom Sherman's Barroom - Dick Devall
21. I'm a Jolly Cowboy - Rowdy Wright
22. Home on the Range - Ken Maynard
23. Cowboy's Dream - McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band
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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 2023
Credits

Producer Richard Nevins (Compilation)
Engineer
Recorded in the 20's & 30's.
Liner Note Author: Richard Nevins.
Yazoo Records' second cowboy compilation has some of the same artists and a few others, like the Crockett Family ("Buffalo Gals Medley"), Paul Hamblin ("The Strawberry Roan"), Buell Kazee, and McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band ("Cowboy's Dream"). The material is equally strong, and much of it, including Harry McClintock's "Jesse James," is absolutely priceless. As with the first volume, there's no biographical material on any of the artists, but the music speaks well for itself -- Jules Allen's "The Girl I Left Behind Me" seems pretty much the basis for every version that has followed since, Rowdy Wright's "I'm A Wandering Bronco Rider" and "I'm A Jolly Cowboy" both have delightfully raw energy, and the Delmore Brothers' exquisitely harmonized "The Fugitive's Lament" is the thematic precursor to every record the Everly Brothers ever cut, especially "Take A Message To Mary." The real find, however, may be Buell Kazee's soaring banjo-driven "The Cowboy Trail," sung in a haunting nasal twang, which is one of the most honest and dramatic pieces among the 23 songs here. The sound is generally excellent, apart from distortion in the opening bars of "The Burial of Wild Bill" by Frank Jenkins & His Pilot Mountaineers, and some unavoidable surface noise evident on Dick Devall's otherwise gorgeous acapella "Tom Sherman's Barroom." ~ Bruce Eder