This page intentionally left blank , ~ e"ws"S mas r J~e fbmazin3 Jrue fb&ventures e! ~iCJers!n J~e 8>~ q " DON CUSIC THE U NNERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Copyright © 2003 by The University Press of Kentucky Paperback edition 2010 Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Cusic, Don. It’s the cowboy way! : the amazing true adventures of Riders In The Sky / Don Cusic. p. cm. Discography: p. ISBN 0-8131-2284-8 (hardcover : acid-free paper) 1. Riders In The Sky. 2. Country musicians—United States— Biography. I. Title. ML421.R5C87 2003 781.642'092’2—dc21 2003007974 ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-2974-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses Intr6buctr6n 1 ~e ~mQz1n8 True ~bventures e{ ~1bers In ~e 8~)J. 4 ~Qn8er f)eua's 8 te r)J. 1~ Tee 811m's 8ter)J. "!2,4 'O)eeb,y.'s 8ter)J. ~8 dee,y.'s I$ter)J. 1:25 f)1sce8rQ.e~)J. :255 8ess1ene8rQ.e~)J. "!2,81 1Jetes Qnb t3~/1e8rQ.e~)J. ~t9~ This page intentionally left blank %ntrebuctlen Riders In The Sky are not superstars in country music-they've never had a gold or platinum album, never had a hit record on the radio, and never headlined a major arena tour. Yet this group is more influential than most of those with the above-mentioned achievements. Indeed, Riders In The Sky may be one of the most influential groups in the history of country music in the twentieth century. Before the Riders were formed at the end of 1977, western music was basically dead. The Sons of the Pioneers, formed in 1932 and the guiding light and inspiration for the Riders, were still performing, but the audiences were limited. By 1977, the Sons of the Pioneers did not have a major-label recording contract and were viewed more as a nostalgia act than a current, vibrant part of the music industry. Seminal figures in western music such as Bob Nolan, Eddie Dean, Jimmy Wakely, and Ray Whitley were living in retirement or semiretirement in California, all but forgotten. Some of the early performers-likeJohnny Bond, Tex Ritter, Tim Spencer, and Lloyd Perryman-had passed away. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were still somewhat active in the entertainment field, but Gene Autry was more involved in running a baseball team and his business empire than in being a singing cowboy. Westerns were nearly gone from television and the movies, and the singing cowboys had been long gone for more than twenty years. There were no western festivals featuring western music, no circuit for a performer to tour, and no recognition for western music from any trade organizations. A tiny spark of western mu­ sic was kept alive by the chuckwagon groups and dude ranches, who invited guests for a few days or a week or so and, during the visit, might serenade them with some western songs by a camp­ fire. In country music it was the period of the"outlaw"-Waylon, Willie, and the boys-whose idea ofbeing a cowboy was that of a fiercely independent cuss doing as he pleased. There were some songs that mentioned cowboys-the most famous being "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Cowboys" by Waylon and Willie-and Rex Allen Jr. had attempted to revive some interest in western music with recordings like "Can You Hear Those Pio­ neers?" but didn't make much of a mark. The members of Riders In The Sky seemed like an unlikely source to lead a revival of western music; the three original mem­ bers, Douglas Green, Fred LaBour, and Bill Collins, grew up in Michigan-far from the cactus and sage of the West. Two newer members, Woody Paul and Tommy Goldsmith, grew up in Ten­ nessee and North Carolina, and the three core members who be­ came Riders In The Sky were steeped heavily in folk, bluegrass, and old-time countrymusic. Their newestmember, Joey Miskulin, grew up in Chicago saturated with polka music and jazz. If you were going to bet on who would lead the revival of western mu­ sic in America, it's doubtful you would have laid your money down on these guys. And yet the convert is the strongest believer. Douglas Green came out of bluegrass to love and cherish western music with a passion. Fred LaBour, who had been only vaguely aware of the Sons of the Pioneers before he moved to Nashville, first heard a Bob Nolan song when Douglas Green performed it. Woody Paul was a fiddler whose musical tastes ran off in a number of direc­ tions-none of them toward western music-and was getting a Ph.D. in Physics while Green and LaBour were first absorbing western music. Joey Miskulin hadn't even heard of Riders In The Sky before he moved to Nashville. You can be western by birth, by location, or by choice. Riders In The Sky weren't born in the West, have never lived in the West, butare westernby choice. They mightnotbe authentic westerners, but they are certainly authentic entertainers. They have taken the West and dressed it up in colorful costumes, put it on stage, and sung songs by, about, and for it. More than any other group in the past twenty-five years, their name has become synonymous with western music. Pioneers don't necessarily travel by covered wagon; some- !ntre~uct;en times they travel in an old bus with some beds built in the back. Some pioneers carry muskets and gunpowder; other pioneers carry musical instruments. The story of Riders In The Sky is the story ofa group of pioneers who have crossed this country a num­ ber of times as soldiers of song. Their mission is to entertain ev­ ery audience with western music and offbeat humor. At the end of twenty-five years, a report from the front lines sends the mes­ sage, "Mission accomplished./I This book is the story of the pioneers know as Riders In The Sky. A book could never be as entertaining as a Riders show, but hopefully this one sheds a little light on how some latter-day pio­ neers have brought a whole civilization of western music to the musical plains of America. There really was nothing like them when they started. The men who later became known as Riders In The Sky-but were intro­ duced on their first night playing together simply as Doug, Fred, and Bill-had an act that was completely different from anything else that was performing nationally at the time. Many musicians claim their music is "different than anything you've ever heard before." That's rarely true, and even if it is, it generally isn't marketable. People need a point of reference, and the totally new and unknown takes some getting used to. The key to the success of Riders In The Sky is that their music had been heard before-but it was many, many years before. The Riders are part of the Baby Boom generation-Douglas Green was born in 1946, Fred LaBour in 1948, and Woody Paul andJoey Miskulin in 1949. This generation was too young to know the movies of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers in their heyday, but it grew up whencowboys were still popular. The recordings ofAutry and Rogers weren't on the radio, but they could be heard on tele­ vision. Every week you could hear Roy and Dale sing "Happy Trails," and every Christmas you were sure to hear Autry singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." The Baby Boomers are a generation that discarded the past and celebrated their youth. Their guiding beacon was the inau­ guration speech of President John Kennedy in January 1961-a year ,,\Then the first Baby Boomers were turning fifteen. This speech, whose most famous phrase is "Ask not what your coun­ try can do for you but what you can do for your country," rang with the theme of discarding the past and turning toward youth. It was directed at closing the curtain on the Eisenhower adminis­ tration, but it was a clarion call to the new youthful generation. It said that even though they were young, they mattered. It was time to discard the old in favor of the new, a time for fresh faces and fresh ideas to populate the "New Frontier." Early Baby Boomers lived in a period of transition. The mem- bers of this generation spent their childhood in front of a TV in­ stead of a radio. In 1956 they saw Elvis and rock 'n' roll render the music of their parents' generation obsolete and irrelevant almost overnight. It was a generation of young boys who got cowboy hats and pistol sets for Christmas and rode stick horses through their suburban neighborhoods.