Month: March 2020

Yee Hawliday: missing home

When you’re not home on the range, you probably have a home to get to. So out there, you’d miss it more’n a trucker come Christmas day.

Praying for a way back, The Brymers add soul to country for their “Cowboy Christmas Day.” Sad one.

Mary Kaye brings out the pathos with an old hand who knows when it’s time for “Goin’ Home for Christmas.” Friends, i’m not sure she means above ground… (sniffle).

Hey wait, is that lounge music for a “Cowboy Christmas“??? Starlet Knight dives deep into diva to tell a tale of not being home in time. —little girl.

Yee Haw-liday: the solitude

One hoof in front of the other, cowman. Keep it going. Count the days… it’s Christmas. How many days until the next stop?

Russell Roberts warbles improbably “Cowboy Christmas” as a tribute he may never understand. Country tinged pop mess.

David John and The Comstock Cowboys sneaks in some spoken word reflection for the song “A Rancher’s Christmas Prayer.” I’ll allow it. This is the philosophy of the planet. No better time to consider it.

Yee Haw-liday: the plains

The horizon never ends, wide open sky, infinity–and it’s Christmas.

Poetry results: “Christmas on the Line” follows the streaming consciousness of the herder as ordained by Michael Martin Murphey. Spiritual.

“Christmas on the Plains” is a standard from The Sons of the Pioneers. Here’s a honorarium of that oldie. (Roy Rogers and Dale Evans do it too, with real 1949 acoustics.)

Yee Haw-liday: saddle up

Shake off the night, time to cowboy up. Christmas don’t matter out on the range, ‘ceptin’ for that furious frame of mind you just can’t shake.

Feeling it from atop, Hugh Moffatt waxes cowboyetical with “Christmas in the Saddle.” His quiet western strumming far exceeds Jim Hogan‘s slicker country pop attempt.

“Saddle Up Your Pinto” and Mary Kaye with saddle up her bay (not ‘bae’). Sexy swing to get you off your feet.

Yee Haw-liday: bunkhouse

You awake, it’s Christmas day… not exactly. It’s still night. But work needs done at the ranch. Stomp your bedraggled feet to gain some feeling and find your boots. It’s a bunkhouse holiday.

Riders in the Sky are the alarm clock you want to wake you with “Deck the Bunkhouse.” Listen to the whole half minute of it and you’ll know what i mean.

“Christmas in the Bunkhouse” sounds more like time off from Gene Davenport. This is honky tonk swing, but you’ll feel a square dance coming on.

Yee Haw-liday: parody

Plenty of red neck turns on Christmas songs. So many so, they blur over into the wild west just a bit.

Give Charley Green a couple minutes to shaggy dog the room, then “Rufus the Red-Nosed Cowboy” is almost charming. He tortures his rhymes with a thesaurus. Fastforward as you can.

More traditionally (somewhere) comes “Randolph the Bow Legged Cowboy.” There are dozens of amateurs sharing this with us. I like this rumpus room full of ten-year-olds. They hold the tune more than Bart Simpson ever could.

Out of left field (L.A.) come The Twang with the magnifico “Yuletrain,” a take on the ’49 Frankie Laine hit (‘Mule Train’). Thanks to Pete the elf for sharing that.

“Jolly Old Saint Nicholas (Please Come to Our Barn)” is a rushed, witty playful ditty from Aspen Black, as if she were your third grade teacher learning you some humor.

Professionally The Bellamy Brothers josh with “Jingle Bells (A Cowboy’s Holiday).” For the kids.

Yee Haw-liday: shoot out

Not too many tunes perpetuate the stereotype of cowboys as killers–especially at Christmas.

Kids love it, though. Plank Road Publishing offers a show for the wee ones to put on: ‘Christmas at the OK Corral,’ but instead of squaring off with lethal weapons mean old Bart intends to cover the old West town in “Bubble Gum Goo.” Ew, Teresa Jennings, gross.

Then the completely unnecessary musical adaptation of ‘A Christmas Story’ includes the fantasia “Red Ryder Action BB Gun,” which of course is more showtune than western. Owned by Clarke Hallum (listen to that last note!). If you need me to expand the context here… count yourself lucky and move on.

Yee Haw-liday: hoedown

How do the cowboys celebrate Xmas? I don’t give a hoot, nanny!

Ray Schreiner, Tom Width, Aly Wepplo, Lisa Kotula & Joy Williams play around with the Paul Deiss kidsong “Santa’s Holiday Hoedown.” I’m sure they had grand fun making this.

The actual kidsong for your thrid graders to assemble sounds more like “Santa’s Holiday Hoedown.” There’s parts for the teachers, too.

More competition from “Holiday Hoedown.” Farm sounds now. That’s enough.

A brief earnest redo of “A Cowboy Christmas Ball” this time by Steven Spalding of Circle S Ministry. Not a rip-roaring time, exactly. (Or as good as Michael Martin Murphy‘s.)

‘It’s a Sponge Bob Christmas’ presents Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy for some ironic “Ho Ho Hoedown.” High spirits and higher voices.

Yee Haw-liday: equal ranch amendment

Now that girls have been mentioned, let’s allow they can ride and rope and rape the environment like their white counterparts.

The English Brothers pick and grin and yodel up a bit of fun with “Cowboy and Cowgirl Christmas.” Cattle’s out of the bag.

Nevada Slim and Cimmaron Sue depict the hard life of a “Cowgirl’s Christmas.” She’s all alone, you see, so it’s tough. Quiet, unplugged pathos.

Well, let’s welcome them back for a more upbeat wanna-be dream. “The Cowgirl who Lost Her Jingle” is the bouncy tale of a li’l one who outgrew her boots. Don’t fret, we’ll wrangle a happy ending out of this muddle (no, it’s not sexist, i swear).