Customer Reviews

Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs / More Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs

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Marty recorded many different types of song but he was particularly good at western songs. For those who can afford it, Bear family have released a boxed set containing all Marty's western songs, but the two albums included here contain many of his best western songs.

On this set, you will find Marty's covers of the classic cowboy songs Cool water and The streets of Laredo, but Marty chose to avoid most of the obvious songs. Instead, he wrote some songs himself and recorded a lot of great but obscure songs. Of the songs that he wrote, El Paso is by far the most important. It was a huge international hit and if you are thinking of buying this collection, you probably know this song already.

The remaining songs all tell stories of life in the west in the years following the American civil war. We all know that you can't believe what Hollywood portrays in western movies. The origin of many of these songs is unknown but the picture they paint sounds credible.

Marty was, perhaps, the greatest western singer of them all (although Michael Martin Murphey is another contender for that title) - this collection shows him at his best.