• Track Listing

A unique presentation. A mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic music from the westerns John Wayne and his mentor, the great film director John Ford made together - from Stagecoach in 1939 through to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in 1962, where songs and music from the original scores are blended with recordings made by popular artists (mostly of 1950s vintage, or older) of songs heard in the films. In all, music from eight eternal westerns, a genre which Ford and Wayne both defined and long-dominated. So Victor Young's poignant and exhilarating themes for Rio Grande are complemented by American folk songs and traditional Mexican song, hymnody, songs of the Civil War and such period music as the parlour ballads of Stephen Foster, performances of cultural, historical and aesthetic significance given by the choirs of Norman Luboff, Roger Wagner and Robert Shaw and the vocal harmony group the Sons of the Pioneers and supplemented by recordings made by such legends from the first half of the twentieth century as the Irish tenor John McCormack and the "Empress of the Blues", Bessie Smith. The Country music icons Johnny Cash, Dale Evans and Eddy Arnold. The writer and poet Carl Sandburg. Folk singers and political activists Odetta and Pete Seeger. The light classical music composer Leroy Anderson, with selections from his Irish Suite performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra under Arthur Fielder. Chart-toppers Johnnie Ray, the "Nabob of Sob" (whose hearing-aid was appropriated in homage by Morrissey), the maestro of the singalong, the musical impresario, Mitch Miller, and Gene Pitney, whose version of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (a number also performed here with distinction by the University of Oregon folk group, the Fairmount Singers) was a hit for the nascent songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. A diversity of talents who together evoke the Fordian atmosphere.