Riders In The Sky

Just after sunset, when the herd’s been fed, watered and put to bed, that’s when the cowhands take out their instruments and sweetly harmonize around the campfire, singing songs about little doggies, big roundups and happy trails. Pull up a hay bale, pardner, fold away yer chaps and set a spell with Riders in the Sky, the yippy-odiest bunch of singing cowpokes in these parts. This is singing-cowboy music in the pure tradition of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers. The Riders show blends traditional Western songs, with their inherently pure American musicality, with sagebrush history, bunkhouse comedy, dazzling acoustic virtuosity and fun stuff like rope tricks and mouth-rhythms (you’ll have to hear it to believe it). The first Western group to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, the two-time Grammy-winning Riders are Ranger Doug (Douglas B. Green), Woody Paul (Paul Woodrow Chrisman), Too Slim (Fred LaBour) and Joey “The Cowpolka King” Miskulkin on guitar, fiddle, bass and accordion, respectively. Their four-part harmonies are as smooth as a glass of fresh buttermilk. Ranger Doug is also a world-class yodeler, and an award-winning Western music historian whose 2002 book, “Singing in the Saddle,” was the first comprehensive look at the singing cowboy phenomenon that swept the country in the 1930s. Too Slim is no slacker, either. Not only does he have a Masters in Wildlife Management, he’s universally known as the schemer behind much of the “Paul McCartney is Dead” phenomenon of 1969 (he was a student at Ann Arbor University and … well, he don’t much like to talk about it. Woody Paul, one of the top Western swing fiddlers in America, played with the great Roy Acuff for years, yet he holds a PhD in Nuclear Physics. Still, cowboy music – and the performance thereof – is a calling for these guys. In their first 25 years, the Riders have performed in over 5,200 live concerts, made nearly 300 national television appearances, and played on more than 200 public radio shows - including Garrison Keillor’s beloved “A Prairie Home Companion,” which has had them on literally dozens of times. “I think that Western music remains so popular because it is just a refreshing change,” says Ranger Doug. “It is not someone singing about feeling sorry for themselves, or about getting drunk at top volume. “It is refreshing to hear guys sing about the great outdoors, in a moderate volume, in nice harmony and who play their instruments well and have a sense of camaraderie.”