I’ve written previously of the limited selection of LPs in my house growing up, and the fact that any LPs my sister and/or I liked were absolutely played to death. My sister favored Annie and Free To Be You And Me, while I tended towards the Clancy Brothers and my anthology of cowboy songs.

I can’t remember when my parents gave me the cowboy song anthology; I can recall listening to it during the Blizzard of ‘78 so it may way well have been a Christmas gift in 1977. The anthology was a two-record set, issued by the National Geographic Society (which published separately a book about cowboys). Some of the tracks, such as Streets of Laredo and Jesse James, are American standards or near enough, while others - The Zebra Dun, Little Joe The Wrangler - are less well-known. I listened to both records constantly and learned all songs by heart.

The LPs are long-gone, vanished into the same void that claimed my sister’s Dark Tower game, but some of the songs remain favorites to this day. In particular I recommend Red River Valley, as sung by Carol Noonan, the first song on my muxtape.