It used to be called country & western. Then two or three decades ago, for reasons I’m sure the ethnographers still debate, it just became country music. Western just sort of slipped out of the vernacular, except for maybe a strip of North America from around Calgary to somewhere near El Paso. Fortunately, there’s still a dedicated taste for cowboy and western music, and the poetry that inspires it. Texas born-and-raised troubadour Andy Hedges continues to feed that hunger and just released a new album, The Westerner, that’s a purebred offering to those acolytes.
The record opens with the title track. It’s a Charles Badger Clark poem about being your own man that Hedges put to music. Another story of personal traits from a throwback era is Eight Bucks & Change. It features Rich Brotherton on dobro, giving it that country *and* western vibe. Going a little further south is Pinto, a set of lyrics Hedges uncovered and set to a tune with hints of norteno. It’s an accounting of a vaquero whose life was intertwined with the bronco he tamed. Cow Trail Blues strays the farthest from the Western genre with a bluesy, almost ragtime, number tracing a timeless journey from cowboy to misguided outlaw and back to cowboy again. Grammy-nominee Don Flemons contributes a rich harmonica part and powers the background vocals.
There are a couple of “pairs” of songs on the album. Cattle is a spoken word piece created out of a 1931 award-winning poem recited over a subtle fiddle part provided by Warren Hood. Its companion is a traditional cowboy song, I’d Like To Be In Texas. The second set starts with Death of the Last Cowhand, a bittersweet poem about a legendary cowboy who continued to work as a ranch hand until literally the day he died in his 90’s, next to his horse, in a meadow. For some unknown reason my allergies always start acting up when I hear it. Then Tom Blasingame follows it up with a folk song about said legend. The CD finishes with kind of a two-for: a cowboy version of Woody Guthrie’s So Long It’s Been Good To Know You, called Driftin’ Cowboy. It’s a duet with Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and a reprise of their Newport Folk performance from a couple of years ago.
While cowboy and western music may have slipped out of the mainstream, it’s clearly dear to an elite set of musicians. With contributions from folks like Brotherton, Hood, Flemons and Elliot, Andy Hedges tapped into a serious pool of talent. So if you want to hear what you’ve been missing, pull up a seat and listen to The Westerner.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.