Christmas the Cowboy Way

 (15 customer reviews)

These guys are enormously talented musicians. Even so, I figured their Christmas album would probably be a little cheesy, if only because Christmas itself has become a little cheesy these days. However this album is anything but cheesy--on the contrary, the songs have clearly been chosen with extreme care and fine taste. There are hymns, old cowboy songs, folk songs, each precisely arranged and performed by the exceedingly capable Riders. This album is sure to delight.

As a 10 year collector of "non-standard" non-traditional Christmas hymns, I look every year for albums which have songs with a different approach/arrangement to the holiday season. This album has four of these songs - "Corn Water & Wood"(also on Michael Martin Murphey's CD), "The Friendly Beasts", "Virgen Maria" and "Just Put A Ribbon In Your Hair". These (except for Friendly Beasts) songs indicate more than a little effort to find holiday music which is not right in front of everyone's nose and for which any listener may obtain with a trip to the music store. This means the Riders (and their staff)put some extra effort into finding and arranging songs to expand the listener's music variety. Many artists make no effort at all to record anything but the most traditional (Same song - different voice).There are some songs with appeal to children, consistent with the Rider's history. Others are traditional with a Western flair. The...Read more

Loved their first Christmas album so much we've worn the tape out! So this was a no-brainer buy - LOVED it. Not the same old boring holiday fare, a great mix of fun and feeling.