Album Notes

There are two kinds of music: country and western, so the saying goes. Sometimes, it requires a bit of hair-splitting to differentiate between the two. Bob Nolan’s Cool Water, Lerner & Loewe’s They Call the Wind Maria, the old west gunfighter spoof Old Henry’s Hoss by Dick Jonas, and Along the Navajo Trail are solid western classics. San Antonio Rose might require validation by a micrometer to make it a western song.
Roly Poly was country from the git-go, but it was popularized by Texan Bob Wills. We call Georgia On My Mind country, because it’s definitely not a western. It’s surprising to note that the song was written, in part, by Hoagy Carmichael, the same guy who wrote Stardust which is neither country nor western.
Other songs in this album are unquestionably country, both by authorship and lyric meaning — Merle Haggard’s Branded Man; Sunday Morning Coming Down by Kris Kristofferson; Johnny Cash’s Get Rhythm; and the Hank Williams country classic I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry. Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar is definitely country, as is You’re My Best Friend, written by Wayland Holyfield and popularized by the Gentle Giant, Don Williams.
Some of the others could make for late night arguments about genre. Peaceful Easy Feeling could go classic rock or folk, really, though the Cool Water Band calls it country, since it’s not western. Red-Headed Woman was written specifically because the band needed a blues number for late in the playlists used in rowdy bar venues.
So, you may arm wrestle with us over our categorizations if you wish, but we hope you like our renditions of some really great songs.