Cowboy Halloween, Part 1

I admit that I was not country when country wasn’t cool. In fact, I don’t particularly enjoy modern country. It’s so formulaic and predictable from the cowboy hat down to the boots. Current artists reminisce about Texas, front porch swings and tractors while they jet from their Nashville mansions to engage in sullied affairs in tropical locals.

But by and large western music has always been a hoax. Most singers croon about “Blue Montana Skies”, “Autumn on the Trail” and “Ridin’ Down the Canyon,” but chances are they’ve never seen a longhorn stampede or felt the saddle sores that come with rounding up a herd and driving it to market.

Although the old west has always existed more as myth than reality occasionally you can still catch a glimpse if you wander out west along the Deep Creek Mountains in western Utah or drive along the Skyview drive. One day, I remember, rounding a corner on my motorcycle heading down towards Huntington to encounter a full racked Texan longhorn sashaying down the middle of the road. Move along little doggie.

Still, slide on a pair of cowboy boots, a stiff hat and Sunday going-to-meeting shirt and you feel, well, rugged and manly like the Marlboro man. Add an acoustic guitar and you can be the Fireman, George Strait.

Yesterday I met with Guy Randle to plan a recording session. I have a few more tunes in my head that I would like to get to disk. I had planned on doing this a couple of years ago as a Christmas gift for Kathy but other things pushed it off. The great thing about being on a timer now is that you are less likely to put off the important things.

So Guy and I put down a demo track and then discussed the instrumentation and artists. I could do this simple and solo but I’m not that type of guy. I like a production that I can be proud of and leave behind. So we are going to hire the best studio musicians to bring this to life: Ryan Shupe on fiddle (Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband), Rich Dixon (friend and lead guitarist for the Osmonds), Todd Sorensen (drummer, composer, producer), Jeff Hinton (Joshua Creek lead singer), Guy Randall on Mandolin and myself on acoustic guitar.

Studio artists charge for a session period which is usually a couple of hours. My one little song will hardly fill that so I’ve got to put something else together. Fortunately, I have just the tune. For our twenty year wedding anniversary Kathy and I went to Maui and Oahu, Hawaii. Somewhere around Turtle Bay a tune popped into my head which just won’t go away. How do you put together western swing with the sound of the islands? It will a challenge but fun.