MUSIC INTERVIEWS
Western Music Expert Doug Green Revisits The Era Of The Singing Cowboy

September 25, 2019 1:43 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air

Green wrote a book on singing cowboys and is featured in Ken Burns' new PBS series about country music. He says he fell in love with Western music from an early age: "It completely entranced me."

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. In the new Ken Burns PBS series on the history of country music, my guest, Doug Green, talks about the era of the singing cowboy as epitomized by the most popular one, Gene Autry. Cowboy lore, folk ballads, jazz, Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood are all ingredients of the music of the singing cowboys who were movie staples in the '30s and '40s and then on TV in the '50s.

A lot of the music has been forgotten, but Green wrote about its history in his book, "Singing In The Saddle." And he performs the music with his Western band, Riders In The Sky, which is celebrating its 42nd anniversary. They've won two Grammys and, in the movie "Toy Story 2," performed the song "Woody's Roundup," the theme for the toy cowboy's TV puppet show. Green also plays Western music on the show he co-hosts, "Classic Cowboy Corral," on the Sirius XM channel Willie's Roadhouse. He's brought some great recordings for us to hear. I love this music, and I hope you will too.

Doug Green, welcome to FRESH AIR. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for playing me so much good (laughter) cowboy music on your show Saturday nights on satellite radio. So let's start with a song.

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GROSS: Is there reason why so many women became known for their yodeling?

GREEN: I suppose we can trace that back to Patsy Montana again, as she just popularized it the way Jimmie Rodgers popularized it for men. And Gene Autry and Roy Rogers and Elton Britt and Rex Allen took it to whole other levels.

GROSS: So let's get to another great woman country singer, and she's a great songwriter. You referred to her because she wrote the Rosalie Allen song that we just heard. So now we're going to hear Cindy Walker sing one of her own songs. And, you know, among the songs she wrote, she wrote "You Don't Know Me," which Ray Charles has such a great recording of. It was a big hit for him.

A lot of our listeners might know "Blue Canadian Rockies" that was on the Byrds' album "Sweetheart Of The Rodeo." And as you mentioned, she wrote for Bob Wills and Gene Autry. So - oh, and she wrote Roy Orbison's song "Dream Baby."

GREEN: Right.

GROSS: And Willie Nelson did a whole album of her songs. That's how much he appreciates her. So you've chosen a song for us to hear by Cindy Walker called "Ridin' On Down." And the album that it's from is even called "The Swingin' Cowgirl From Texas" (laughter).

GREEN: (Laughter).
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