Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs Review
Recorded on 7 April 1959 Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs was released in September the same year and would peak at #6 on the Billboard album charts. The major success of the album was the single El Paso, a #1 hit on both the pop and country charts in 1960 and subsequently the winner of the Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. The album features Marty on guitar and vocals, Grady Martin and Jack Pruett on guitar, Bob Moore on bass, Louis Dunn on drums and backing vocals by Tompall & The Glaser Brothers. Read more...
Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs Specifications
A lonely Westerner in Nashville, Marty Robbins salved his soul by cutting an album (in one afternoon) of mostly self-composed cowboy ballads. One of them was a four-and-a-half-minute epic, "El Paso," that broke every rule of Top 40 programming to become a No. 1 pop and country hit in 1960. Robbins was arguably the most surefooted and accomplished singer in all country music, and that was never more obvious than on these Western ballads performed to often breathtaking perfection with a very small group and a vocal trio. Other titles include "Big Iron" (also a Top 30 hit), "Running Gun," and Western classics like "Cool Water," "Billy the Kid," and "The Strawberry Roan." Three extra tracks flesh out the 1999 release, including "Saddle Tramp" (the B-side of "Big Iron") and "The Hanging Tree" (title song from the 1959 Gary Cooper Western). --Colin Escott
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