Marty Robbins: Old-Fashioned Cowboy Music

Until I started listening to Pandora I didn’t appreciate the difference been “Country” music and “Western” music. I was a rock’n’roll kind of kid, and despised anything heard on “Country+Western” radio stations, and so I never picked up on the subtleties. My tastes have broadened as I’ve gotten older, though, and bit by bit Pandora’s been chipping away at my prejudices. (I made the mistake of adding Johnny Horton as a seed to one of my Pandora stations, and after that, well….)

One of the more entertaining discoveries I’ve made is Marty Robbins. I gather is output covers the waterfront from Pop to Western and back again, but what I’ve mostly heard is a collection of cowboy songs. They are a little sappy and sentimental, it’s true, but Robbins’ voice makes it all worth it: rich, beautiful, without seeming overdone. Seriously, the man could sing.

Here are a couple of my favorites. First, a tale of love gone wrong in El Paso. (Don’t get involved with Feleena. Just…don’t.) This is very nice live clip from an Australian TV show; it was recorded in 1964, and was never actually shown on the air.

Next, a story of a stranger who comes to town. This one’s the studio version; his voice is on full display: