Roundup Magazine June 2017 Western Music Book Reviews
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RN M WESTE OVIES Wrangler Award winners Presented in April at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City: Hell or High Water. Lionsgate. Blu-ray, $31.99; DVD, $19.98. LionsgateShop.com. Literary Robert B. Parker’s BlackJack by Robert Knott The wide-open of the South- Western Novel: (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) west, sliced by ribbons of high- Nonfiction Book: American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of way, has inspired crime writers the Great Plains by Dan Flores (University Press of Kansas) who took the boiling threat of Art/Photography Book: Photographs by Barbara Van the city and transplanted it to big Cleve by Susan Hallsten McGarry (SF Design, LLC/Fresco sky country. W.R. Burnett, Jim Books) Thompson and Elmore Leonard Juvenile Book: The Green Colt by S.J. Dahlstrom (Paul Dry are among those that saw horse Books) Magazine Article: “Warriors to Ride the River With” trails replaced by blacktop and by Gabriella Schiavino (American Cowboy) found a new Westerner riding Poetry Book: The Woman Who Married a Bear: Poems by Tif- there, often in an open convert- fany Midge (University of New Mexico Press) ible, who was no loner with high Film purpose, but a thief searching for his stash or a killer look- Fictional Drama: “Chrysalis,” Longmire episode ing for a target. And sometimes, he wore a star. Western Lifestyle Programming: Red Steagall is Somewhere “South West Noir” has become its own twisting genre, West of Wall Street pushing boundaries of moral violence when interpreted Theatrical Motion Picture: Hell or High Water by directors like Sam Peckinpah (The Documentary: What Was Ours Getaway), John Sayles (Lone Star) or the Music Coen brothers (No Country for Old Men). Original Western Composition: “Keeper of the West” by This year’s Spur winner for drama Ryan FritZ screenplay, Hell or High Water, stands Traditional Western Album: The Cowboy Way solidly alongside these films. New Horizons: Trinity Seely Loaded with humor, human frailties and failure, that often lead to bloody C. COURTNEY JOYNER resolution, Taylor Sheridan’s Oscar- Congratulations to our nominated script unfolds with humor Spur Award winner! in its tension and pays as much attention to human frailty as it does to its shootouts. H BEST WESTERN CONTEMPORARY NONFICTION Chris Pine is one half of the team of bank-robbing broth- ers, whose larkish attitude contrasts with his sibling’s, played by an intense Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma). The bank jobs they’re pulling have a purpose, though, and Hell might be the slyest movie in a long time about family. No hyperbole, just feeling, sometimes articulated, most times not, because these boys have too much fast driving and shooting to do. Jeff Bridges brings much to his role of the retiring mar- shal, whose racist attitudes reflect an older, simpler and, for some, better time in Texas. His partner, Gregory CruZ, does not agree, and his experience from the other side is brought home in a superb performance. Hell is more than an honorable South West Noir. It’s the best story you ever heard from a buddy, sharing a beer on a hot afternoon. Michael Duchemin The disc includes five making-of documentaries. NEW DEAL COWBOY *** Gene Autry and Public Diplomacy C. Courtney Joyner writes in many formats, including screenplays, fiction and nonfiction. Email him at [email protected]. THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY INSTITUTION. WWW.OU.EDU/EOO 24 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE JUNE 2017 WESTERN MUSIC BOOK REVIEWS LIZ MASTERSON (WITH MIKE FICTION DOWLING & FRIENDS). Linger Awhile. Wind River Guitar, $16, JOHNNY D. BOGGS. Return to Red River. Pinnacle. Mass- LizMasterson.com. market paperback, 371 pages, $7.99, KensingtonBooks.com. I wonder if producers Mike and Jan Straight off, this book had big boots to fill. Johnny Boggs Dowling realiZed what a hot-button has written a sequel to the Borden Chase novel that became issue immigration was about to become the unforgettable 1948 film Red River, which starred John when they selected “Deportee” as one Wayne (bullheaded rancher Tom Dunson) and Montgomery of the 11 cuts on this album of cover tunes. Folksinger and Clift (his adopted son Mathew Garth) as two men on an epic social activist Woody Guthrie wrote “Deportee” in 1948 as a cattle drive. This novel finds Mathew, 20 years later, facing the poem protesting what he perceived as the racial mistreatment loss of his ranch. He is more like old man Dunson than the of Mexican migrant workers. people around him can bear, gambling everything by making “Deportee” tells the story of the January 28, 1948, plane one of the last great Texas cattle drives. The story moves with crash near California’s Los Gatos Canyon, which killed 28 impeccable pacing and crisp realism, from its stark beginning Mexican farm laborers who were being to the fireball climax. By story’s end, Boggs rides away with his deported. Martin Hoffman set the poem to seventh Spur Award (tying Elmer Kelton’s record) and wearing music 10 years later. Here, the talented LiZ big boots that fit just fine. Masterson renders a haunting rendition – Micki Fuhrman that is especially relevant during today’s tu- multuous debate on the immigration issue. C.J. BOX. Off the Grid. G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Hardcover, 373 “Deportee” provokes thought and pages, $27, PenguinRandomHouse.com. OLLIE scratches at the conscience, but there’s Off The Grid, this year’s Spur winner for contemporary novel, REED JR. plenty on this CD to stir up the heart and sets a new standard for excellence. It has a tense, ambitious good humor. Vocalist Masterson, honored plot – masterfully executed – with characters worth rooting in the past as Western Music Association female performer of for. Subplots intercept in an explosive ending. Set in Wyo- the year, does memorable work on the title tune; “Salt River ming’s isolated Red Desert, Joe Pickett’s family is drawn into Valley” and “Ridin’ On Down,” both by the late Texas song- the intrigue of domestic terrorism while he tries to protect a writer Cindy Walker; “Texas Echo” by David Ball; and “Along Middle Eastern friend. The stakes rise when Pickett learns the Santa Fe Trail.” that his daughter, April, naively becomes involved in the same Backing musicians Mike Dowling, Ben Winship, David terrorist plot Pickett is pledged to disrupt. Off the Grid is perfect Lange and Bill Plummer cut loose on their own with a rousing for readers who love suspenseful mysteries. Box’s inclusion of version of Paul Anastasio’s “Montana Glide.” information about falconry and griZZly bears demonstrates his deftness with juggling subplots without losing his focus. The SWING SISTERS. Somewhere There’s Joe Pickett series is solidly Western and fearlessly tackles social Music. Swing Sisters, $15, and environmental issues. KristynHarris.com. – Charlotte Hinger The Swing Sisters is an all-star lineup of Kristyn Harris, WMA’s 2016 enter- PETER BRANDVOLD. To Hell on a Fast Horse: A Western tainer of the year; Jeanne Cahill, twice Duo. Five Star. Hardcover, 386 pages, $25.95, Gale.Cengage. WMA’s musician of the year (guitar, com/FiveStar. bass, steel guitar, etc.); and champion Two new bold, engaging, fast-moving stories of bounty hunt- fiddler Brook Wallace. ers Lou Prophet and his beautiful partner Louisa Bonaventure: Their talents shine on this 12-cut CD, a mix of American “The Devil’s Ambush” and “Bring Me the Head of Chaz standards (“How High the Moon,” “The Sunny Side of the Savidge!” Excellent stories of intrigue, and an ending that’s a Street”) and Western favorites (“Red River Valley,” Dave shock. Thanks, Mean Pete, I loved them. Stamey’s “Buckskin Horse”). – Phil Dunlap But the song I liked best is Cahill’s “Cowgirl’s Home on the Range,” a tribute to nontraditional girls, women who value a BRETT COGBURN (editor). Showdown. High Hill. Hard- good horse, a good saddle and good friends more than makeup cover, eBook, 268 pages, $27.95, $4.99, HighHillPress.com. and hairstyles. With stories by McKendree Long, Michael Zimmer, D.B. *** Nelson and editor Brett Cogburn, this is a fine collection of a E-mail Ollie at [email protected] and send CDs to him doZen short stories. Two are particularly outstanding. “Umpire at P.O. Box 2381, Corrales, NM 87048. Colt” by Johnny D. Boggs, recogniZed as a Spur Award finalist 42 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE JUNE 2017 in short fiction this year, places Wild Bill Hickok in a baseball game with a surprising “last pitch.” This is Boggs writing about what he knows best – baseball and an icon of the Old West. L.J. Fletcher tells a tale that spans from Georgia to Wyoming’s Wind River Country in “Death in the Wind River,” a powerful story of loss and perseverance that is also Joyce Mochrie superbly told. Certifed Copy Editor and Proofreader – Candy Moulton JERRY S. DRAKE. Treasure Canyon. CreateSpace. Trade WWW: one-last-look.com paperback, eBook, 224 pages, $16.95, $7.99, Amazon.com. EMAIL: [email protected] It’s not every day that you run across a novel advertised as PHONE: being modeled on a literary classic but with an entirely dif- 607-425-6281 ferent setting. That’s exactly what you get with this tale that • First 15 pages edited FREE • Afordable rates transplants Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island premise on projects over 200 pages • Quick turnaround into the Rocky Mountains, circa 1843. For those unfamiliar • Clients include publishers, • Sample edit upon with Stevenson’s original, a young boy, Jim, comes into pos- best-selling and request session of a treasure map and prompts an expedition with multi-award-winning some good-hearted companions, but cutthroats infiltrate the authors, and THE WALT party, putting the boy and his friends in mortal danger.