Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs

record

AYYYYY!!! I’ve wanted to listen to this for a second but not enough to, y’know, actually listen to it. It’s great though. Not entirely sure why the Spotify track listing was wacked to fuck, but nothing a bit of queueing up won’t fix. Anyway this album is awesome! Just a bunch of really nice tracks, with some really good standouts, most notably the beautiful “El Paso,” and a few other great ones. Robbins’ voice, though easily likened to better artists such as Cash or Campbell, is still a sturdy and well-used voice, and across the album the performances are great.
9.0/10

Have I turned into an old man? Are we singing too happily about the "hanging tree" and being trampled by cattle? I don't know why, but I'm loving this album and I haven't even played Fallout: New Vegas!

I need to be on a 13-mile hike and mourning the loss of my wife and child in that damned cruel fire while taking swigs from my whiskey flask to truly appreciate this album I think. I am Positive I've heard Big Iron before--Johnny Cash, perhaps?

I recognize a bunch of these songs by title, but this is my first time listening to this entire album.

This is exactly what I expected, and it's solid.

Not bad. Definitely sounds like songs from the era. 3/5

The original gangster rap album.
Western side!

Didn't mind listening to this at all. An interesting historical capsule of the western craze of the '50s.

yip dang hee haw gidde up

This was like the soundtrack to a cowboy movie. I enjoyed it, I like story songs and all of these were stories.

I found it was pleasant and a cool theme (all out cowboy country/western) - maybe it's my unfortunate British sensibilities but I found it just fine really

It's the Fallout soundtrack! I love the theme and I love Marty's voice even if things get a bit repetitive. Favorite track: Big Iron

I do like country quite a bit, and even though I'm not as well versed as real genre die-hards, I'd like to think I have an honest appreciation of what the genre is at it's best. However, you would not necessarily know this from my record on this website. I've enjoyed most country I've heard here, but not really been floored by any of it, and I honestly think it's kind of a curatorial issue. I think the authors of this book did a pretty good job, but I think there are a couple of gaping holes in the country selection here, particularly as far as ~60s-ish stuff goes. As a couple of examples, Glen Campbell and Townes Van Zandt are both *entirely* absent from this list, which is almost criminal. These musicians have created several of my favorite country songs *ever*, and I think Townes Van Zandt is one of the greatest American songwriters ever. What does this have to do with Marty Robbins? Very little. Do I mostly just want an excuse to mention these artists? Probably. But I also bring this up since the list has finally seen fit to give me a country album that I truly love. I don't think Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs is perfect, but its best songs may be. Firstly, let's get this out of the way: that isn't just a title, this album does consist pretty much entirely of gunfighter ballads and trail songs. I generally think the gunfighter ballads are the stronger of the two categories. And they are *very* strong. Some of these songs contain some of the finest storytelling in the history of country and western. They are all "Gunfighter Ballads", so there isn't a ton of variety in subject matter, but this subject matter is presented in a wide variety of ways. We have stories from the perspective of outlaws, rangers, strangers and disembodied narrators. Robbins explores various tones, and you never feel like you can assume "good" will triumph in the end. These songs are visual, and poetic, and masterclasses in building suspense. Big Iron is the most legendary song from this album. And it has earned this status. Big Iron manages to be both a fantastic country composition and a stirring micro-Western. The way the narrative unfolds almost feels like watching a short film. Billy The Kid feels convincingly like you've been cornered by a talented troubadour. And The Master's Call is a unique song among the others here. It is the tale of an outlaw turning to Jesus after miraculously surviving a storm. And even though I would not presently self-describe as Christian, the presentation here is incredible. It captures Christian music through the lens of cowboy mysticism. And the result leans into what feels almost like magical realism in the way that some of the more interesting stories of the Catholic saints feel like magical realism. God is presented as an interventionalist force of nature, and it is unique and refreshing to hear in a world of evangelical music.

As I implied earlier, I am a touch less floored by the "trail songs", but they are still solid and still serve a purpose. They are vital in maintaining immersion in this album's world and stringing the center-pieces together. And even if the story telling isn't as flashy, there are very much still echoes of what makes the highs on this album so great. That being said, I am less inclined to revisit these songs, even though I think they are justified within a full album setting. I'd also like to mention that of all the '50s music I have heard through this project (so far), I think this may be the lead contender for the album that has aged the best. The core of these songs is a person and a guitar, and there are embellishments, but you could effectively perform these solo without making huge changes to the guitar parts. And this framework lends itself very well to frank, earnest songwriting. Which is why you can still find young people making music that resembles this, it's a medium which naturally lends itself to earnest expression. Contrast this with something like Elvis' Rock and Roll. You *can* still find artists tapping into a sound which directly recalls Elvis, but it's almost always a subversion or pastiche of the sound. And even if the artists in question have an earnest love of the source material, the art they are making serves a different objective than this source material. In short, the simplicity and honesty of the presentation here lends Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs a timelessness that it wears well. Marty Robbins delivered a landmark in country here, and the storytelling across this album absolutely still holds up. The trail songs make things a tad uneven, but the full picture kind of needed them. This is pretty excellent, and I feel happy with what I will officially call "a high 4".

Big iron took me back to my youth playing new vegas. Goot times. Overall fun album

Enhanced many a soundtrack this bad boy. Love that beginner vinyl collectors are obsessed with this $10 goodness.

The good, the bad, and the ugly ahh album. Cool

Cowboys.

Harmless enough album of what I would call television cowboy songs. I’m not sure why it’s considered high-priority to hear this, but.. ok now I have.

Just no. I heard the one or two songs here that capture americana... but they just aren't worth the rest of the pretend glorified western BS.

A good collection of stories about guys getting shot