22. Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs

1. Big Iron

2. Cool Water

3. Billy the Kid

4. A Hundred and Sixty Acres\

5. They're Hanging Me Tonight

6. The Strawberry Roan

7. El Paso

8. In the Valley

9. The Master's Call

10. Running Gun

11. The Little Green Valley

12. Utah Carol

A-

When I was a kid, my dad used to play an oldies station from Melbourne that focused on pop songs from the 50s and 60s. It was on this station that I first heard "El Paso" and fell in love with it. Not only does it have a great rhythm and melody, but unlike most of the music I'd heard up to that point, it told a story. This was music as short story, and I was fascinated.

Many years later I found a copy of Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs in a charity shop. It's scratchy and warped, but I still have it, and it's great. The best songs on this album are fascinating narratives, all conveyed by Marty Robbins' truly extraordinary singing voice. And the best songs are all penned by Robbins. "Big Iron" is a classic lawman-vs-outlaw tale that captures the excitement and drama of the Old West (at least, as we like to think of it) perfectly. "El Paso" is a movie in miniature, the story of a guy who shoots someone who tries to steal his love away, has to flee, and is drawn back to his doom by his love. And then you have "His Master's Call", a story of finding redemption in Christ, which features one of the most beautiful vocal melodies I've ever heard.

The rest of the album is pretty solid, too. Honestly, the reissue is probably better than the original, as it features great songs like "Saddle Tramp" and "The Hanging Tree", but the original can hold its own. This is country music, but not the sort most people think of. The stories are fun and exciting, the vocals are clear and magnificent. It many ways it owes as much to pop music as it does to country and western. This is especially true of "They're Hanging Me Tonight" which features slightly Latin guitar and a gently melody and which, if not for its lyrics, could be an Everly Brothers tune.

The main thing to take from this album is that it's fun and cool. True, it's cool in a very 1950s way, and there are some tracks which people who dislike country might consider stumbling blocks, but it's a great album. I've been complaining for a while now about how most of the songs on the List up to this point have just been silly love songs, and so to have an album of genuine lyrical depth, telling stories and dealing with unusual subject matter, is a real joy. The thing I'm taking from the music I'm listening to for this list is that country music, both musically and lyrically, was a significantly greater influence on rock and pop than the conventional narrative would have it. It's songs about real life, about tragedies and adventures, and it's great.