Home On the Range

Rooted as it is in both the folk music of Europe and Western cowboy, railroad and gold rush songs, “Country & Western” is a term that has embraced many diverse musical styles over the years. The arrival of the gramophone in the early years of the century did much to spread the popularity of country music and was at least partially responsible for its standardization and commercialization.

"Home on the Range" is a collection of recordings from the late '20's through the '30's released in 1992 on the British label Pavilion. The material reflects some of that initial diversity with examples of hillbilly music as well as the immensely popular singing cowboys Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, mixed in with some examples of the artistry of Jimmie Rodgers and Sara Carter of The Carter Family fame, and rarities by the little-known Hillbillies and Carson Robison & His Pioneers.

The artists, in brief:

GENE AUTRY’s music, coupled with his careers in movies and on radio and television, made him a part of the mythos that has made up the American identity for the past hundred years. He defined country music for two generations of listeners, cowboy songs for much of the 20th century, and American music for much of the world. He was country music's first genuine "multimedia" star, the best-known country & western singer on records, in movies, on radio, and on television from the early '30s until the mid-'50s. Born Orvon Gene Autry on September 29, 1907, in Tioga, Texas, he was first taught to sing by his grandfather, William T. Autry, a descendant of some of the earliest settlers in Texas (the Autries were contemporaries of the Houstons and the Crocketts and an Autry had died at the Alamo). Gene got his first guitar at age 12, bought from the Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog. He cut his first record in 1929 and by the early '30s he’d become one of the most beloved singers in country & western music.

Westerns, which tended to be low-budget venues, were hit hard by the coming of the ‘talkies’. Audiences expected dialogue and Western stars at that time were better at being cowboys than singers and actors. As a way of save money on soundtracks, one intrepid movie producer decided to try an experiment by putting in performers that could do their own musical numbers—thus was the movie career of Gene Autry born. However, by the mid-'50s, rock & roll and R&B were attracting younger listeners and a new generation of country music stars were gaining popularity. Autry gradually receded from the limelight. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1969 and is the only celebrity to have five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died on October 2, 1998.

Clip of Gene Autry singing "Mexicali Rose" from 1939 movie of the same name:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCqD6iFUXoY

JIMMIE RODGER’s plaque in the Country Music Hall of Fame reads “the man who started it all." Also known as the "Singing Brakeman" and the "Mississippi Blue Yodeler," he was born on Sep 8, 1897 in Meridian, MS. At age 14 he went to work as a railroad brakeman, and even after contracting tuberculosis he stayed on the rails until a pulmonary hemorrhage sidetracked him to the medicine show circuit in 1925. In an era when Rodgers' contemporaries were singing solely mountain and mountain/folk music, Rodgers was fusing hillbilly music, gospel, jazz, blues, pop, cowboy, and folk into one distinctive style.

He released his first record for Victor in October of 1927. It didn’t take off, but his next recording two months later was "T for Texas/Blue Yodel"--one of only a handful of early country records to sell a million copies. By 1929, Rodgers had become an official star but the coming of the Depression cut into not only his career but his health as well. Rodgers was forced to decrease the number of concerts he performed but financial concerns drove him on. For a while he performed on a radio show in San Antonio, but he ended up collapsing and was rushed to the hospital. Realizing that he was close to death, Rodgers begged to be allowed one last recording session. Accompanied by a nurse and resting on a cot in between songs, he completed sessions over two days before succumbing to a lung hemorrhage on May 26, 1933. In 1961, Jimmie Rodgers became the first artist inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame; 25 years later, he was inducted as a founding father at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame—not bad for an artist whose recording career lasted all of six years.

Clip of Jimmie Rodgers performing "T for Texas/Blue Yodel":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEIBmGZxAhg

ROY ROGERS was born Leonard Franklin Slye on November 5, 1911. At age 18, he left his tenement building in Cincinnati, OH and head west to California and in less than two years he’d co-founded one of the greatest Western singing group of all time, the Sons of the Pioneers. The group’s mix of harmonies and yodeling won them a job on radio were soon developed a large following. By the mid-'30s, the sextet was one of the nation’s top-selling country acts. Roy had done occasional work as a movie extra and bit player in B-Westerns at Republic Pictures, where the reigning king of Western movies was none other than Gene Autry. However, when Autry entered into a contractual dispute with Republic and failed to report for work Republic was only to eager to find a replacement for their singing cowboy star. Roy tried sneaking onto the lot with a group of extras and was caught, but a sympathetic director permitted him to take a screen test. Needless to say he passed, and made his debut was the newly christened “Roy Rogers” in the 1938 film “Under Western Stars”. By the early '40s Roy Rogers had become a national institution. The merchandising of Rogers memorabilia and other items — toys, cereals, even electric ranges — coupled with a syndicated radio show made him one of the most familiar pop culture figures throughout the war years. On record as a solo artist, Rogers was never as successful as either Autry or the Songs of the Pioneers. His music was more typical Hollywood Western fare, pleasant but not profound. Roy Rogers was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988, giving him a second spot (the first having come as a member of the Sons of the Pioneers, who had been elected some years earlier). He died at his home in Victorville, CA, on July 6, 1998.

Clip of Roy Rogers yodeling "It's Home Sweet Home To Me" from the 1939 movie, "The Arizona Kid":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zEKaW9vmIg

CARSON ROBISON, the granddaddy of the hillbillies," has mysteriously missed the recognition that has come the way of such contemporaries. Although his impact is generally forgotten today he played a large role in promoting country music in its early years through his work on numerous recordings and appearances on radio. Born in Oswego, Kansas on August 4, 1890, Robison began playing guitar professionally at age 14. In 1931, he formed his own group, the Pioneers, later rechristened the Buckaroos. The Carson Robison & the Buckaroos were the first country & western group to tour England and had a considerable recording and broadcast career abroad as well as in America. Robison’s music had a pop music veneer that made it difficult to group him with either hillbilly singers, cowboy singers, or country music in general, which may have been the reason media exposure beyond the radio was so elusive for him. Carson Robison died on March 24, 1957 and was posthumously inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame, also in 1957.

Audio only clip of Carson Robison's "Nobody's Darling But Mine":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SDleh2-ow8

SARA CARTER was born Elizabeth Dougherty on July 21, 1898 in Copper Creek, Virginia. Known for her deep and distinctive singing voice, she was the lead singer on most of the recordings of the historic Carter Family act in the 1920s and 1930s. She married A. P. Carter in 1915 and together with her cousin Maybelle, who had married to A.P.'s brother, Ezra Carter, they began performing together as the Carter Family in 1927. They were the first vocal group to become country music stars. Sara and A.P. divorced in 1939 and she later remarried Coy Bays, A.P.'s first cousin, resulting the group’s disbanding. In the 1960s, Sara reunited with her cousin Maybelle and briefly toured during the folk music craze of the time. Sara Carter was inducted as part of The Carter Family in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970 and later in 2001 inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor. She died January 8, 1979.

Clip of Sara & Maybelle Carter's "Cannonball Blues":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlFyGPNmOvI

The final artist represented on the album, the group THE HILLBILLIES, are rather more shadowy figures in country music history. They played the type of music implicit in their name and were well-known in the 30's through their many musical recordings.

In closing, here's one last back-to back audio only clip of first Roy Rogers & the Sons of the Pioneers singing "Home on the Range", followed by Gene Autry's version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKBqz6FWvlo