Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs

This has to be the best sort of Country to listen to. Very listenable with some great storytelling allowing the listener to place themselves in the songs they’re listening to.

Didn’t think I’d enjoy it but I did.

He's got a fine voice, and it's a good representative of its genre, but this isn't really my kind of thing.

The lyric "He's about the worst bucker I've seen on the range" made me double take when I (mis)heard it.

Who knew Marty Robbins wrote the original Hanging Tree song

Sorry, not for me, I skipped it after a while! I guess it's a cultural thing, I don't know; for English native speakers I understand the storytelling can be fabulous but for me, meh... let's just say, doesn't make my type ;-)

I listened to this multiple times over the course of several days and it just kept growing on me more and more. I love the old West aesthetic and the timeless sound. Each song was very distinct for the time, each having it's own unique hook that on relistens I was excited to hear. I can't wait to go on a road trip through the plains and blast this album. 5/5

Very catchy songs, happy to finally discover country music ( i think it's country ? ). I find the music a bit childish but it's nonthenless great.

I was once in a semi-fictional band called Nevermind Mr Bear, and this is what we aspired to be. Unfortunately we lost all our music when MySpace ‘accidentally’ fucked up their data migration. This is good at first and then every song is the same!

I’m at a 5.

It’s just great storytelling, man. Every track here just nails it. I know I harp on “old country” a lot, but this goes a bit beyond that – this is a fabulous showcase of music as a device for pure storytelling. I think sometimes it’s very easy to get caught up in neat instrumentation, melodies or vocals, and I’m as guilty of that as anyone, but this is just pure storytelling. Yes, his vocals are great throughout this album, and his higher registers are stunningly emphatic, but what makes this album work is in the simplicity of it all. Most of these have really easy vocal patterns in the verses & choruses, really basic instrumentation in the guitar, and all the strength is laid out in the lyrics, which have more of a poetic scheme to them. It’s very easy to follow along to, and it is a reminder that music, as an art form, was originally made for stuff that sounds like this, at its very core, because it was made to be easily digestible, teachable, and shared to the masses.

I really liked it – it just clicked wonderfully for me, and it does make me sort of yearn for music to be this “simple” again. OK, well, maybe not this simple, but I’d love to be able to just sing a song without having to feel like I need to hit a whistle note like Mariah Carey or anything. It is pure country music, plain and simple, and it should be up there within the standards of the genre itself. That’s just how you do it; easy 5.

It was good, but... same ish?

Va duro.

Really great. Enthusiastic and candy like while cartoonishly dark and morbid. What a fun piece of history.

A selection of soft country western songs with each song telling a story.

Interessant angefangen, aber dann nicht unbedingt interessanter geworden.
Das Albumcover ist einfach lustig schlecht
Songs der Playlist hinzugefügt: Big Iron

The juxtaposition of dark lyrics against upbeat music on some of the songs such as El Paso is masterful.

'50s country is so much more palatable than a lot of what will come later. Not something I will ever love, but this is pleasant and well-preformed. Reminds me more of hornless mariachi than what I think of as "country", but I also know the relationship between the two is pretty tight, so it makes sense.

Kinda liked this one, actually. 3.2

Westerns distilled with an awesome voice. I cannot imagine a better execution of the concept, not my thing but glad it exists

The original true crime podcast

For this review, I will not be factoring in the bonus tracks included in the CD reissue.

I’ve heard of Marty Robbins before as a country singer-songwriter, often cited as a pioneer in the subgenre of outlaw country. The one song I knew from him prior was “Big Iron”, which not only serves as a strong opener to this album but it has since gained a wide resurgence in popularity from its inclusion in the Fallout: New Vegas video game soundtrack.

I’d say the rest of my enjoyment with Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs is about on par with that opening track. Marty had such a knack for effortlessly crooning and singing baritone whilst strumming away on his guitar, as him and his backing band run the gamut through tales of the Wild West with a fair amount of cover songs played decently.

Probably the only complaint to be had is that the album is rather one-note. Most of these songs are standard tempo and sticking to the Wild West aesthetic. It’s certainly pleasant to listen to, though outside of “Big Iron”, “El Paso” and his cover of Curley Fletcher’s “The Strawberry Roan”, there’s not much else here that uniquely stands out.

Still at the end of day, I had a good time with Gunfighter Ballads. If you like your country western, or need a good soundtrack for traversing a retrofuturistic nuclear wasteland, then this album comes with a strong recommendation.

Late October 3rd, 2024

HL: “Big Iron”, “El Paso”, “Cool Water”, “The Master’s Call”, “Utah Carol”, “In the Valley”

If not the finest country album I’ve heard on this list, definitely in the top 5

Shoutout to “Billy the Kid” & its flipping between A major and A minor