Lonesome Dove [Original Television Soundtrack]

Music composed by Basil Poledouris.
Personnel includes: Tim May (guitar, mandolin); Dennis Budimir (guitar); Herb Peterson (banjo); Richard Greene (fiddle); Dan Greco (hammered dulcimer); Frank Marocco (accordion); Chuck Domanico (bass); Kenny Watson, Steve Forman (percussion).
Producers: Basil Poledouris, Ford A. Thaxton.
Engineers: Dan Wallin, Sean Murphy, Bobby Fernandez.
Widely considered the creative apex of television scoring, Basil Poledouris' sweeping Lonesome Dove remains the most compelling and effective orchestral music ever written for the small screen -- it's also the best Western score to appear in any medium in the last quarter century, with an eloquence and slap-leather authenticity all its own. Poledouris' beautifully poignant score captures the fading grandeur of the American West in vivid detail -- while its panoramic arrangements evoke the wide-open spaces of a land not yet overrun by highways, skyscrapers, and strip malls, Poledouris is most effective when exploring the rugged yet tender character of the men and women who made the frontier their own. Sonic Images' soundtrack contains roughly one-third of Poledouris' complete four-and-a-half-hour score -- perhaps someday a box set will assemble Lonesome Dove's music in full, but for now this highlight reel does the trick. ~ Jason Ankeny