Lawrence Welk plays the last of his TV WESTERN THEME SONGS (1958)

Here you go - the last four tracks of this classic LP. Bust out the champagne and cock an ear, buckaroos.

Lawrence Welk plays more TV WESTERN THEME SONGS (1958)

More classic tunes from Champagne Larry's best ever LP. I posted the first four HERE. 

Hear it here: ROY ROGERS and DALE EVANS - 16 Great Songs of The Old West (1958)

I'm pretty sure that most, if not all, of the songs on this album first appeared on Golden Records singles. In their next incarnation, all eight singles were collected in a cool boxed set called "Song Wagon." Then came the LPs. I've seen four different versions of the album. The cover art and contents (I think) are all the same, but the titles are slightly different. Where "A Child's Introduction to The West" falls in that progression is a mystery to me. In any case, I've posted the whole thing on YouTube in two parts (Side 1 & Side 2), and I think it's pretty dang listenable. Hope you agree.

"The Last Cowboy Song" by Ed Bruce

"The Last Gunfighter Ballad" by Johnny Cash

Ridin' the Chisholm Trail with Tex Ritter

Tex Ritter recorded two masterpieces of cowboy music: "Jingle, Jangle, Jingle" and "The Old Chisholm Trail."  When Tex was good he was excellent, but when he was bad he was horrible.

This was borne out by a 4-disc set I just checked out from the library called Have I Stayed Away Too Long. It had 113 tracks on it. Most were sappy love songs, but about a quarter were cowboy tunes. And still, every one of them sucked. No, Tex, you haven't stayed away long enough. The sets' only saving grace was this comic book cover gallery.

Still, I don't really blame Tex - I blame the producers. If he was capable of such great stuff as "Jingle, Jangle, Jingle" and the song presented below, surely he had more great music in him. I'm still looking.

"The Old Chisholm Trail" by Tex Ritter