Firstly Seamus is a pretty good yodeler. I know because I've some yodeling myself and I have yodeled with Seamus Kennedy a bit as well.
I think he is a better yodeler than this CD would indicate and this is pretty OK.

The yodeling isn't the jewel in this CD. It is the great affection he demonstrates for the cowboys songs he is doing. It starts with Eric Bogels song about Saturday matinees and finishes appropriately enough with Happy Trails.

For me the high points are Big Iron, El Paso, Cattle Call, and Do Not Forsake Me. And if you notice none of those songs are yodeling songs.
Cattle Call is exactly that, a cattle call, not strictly speaking a yodel.

I'm glad Seamus chose to use the Tex Ritter version of Do Not Forsake Me for his pilot. Frankie Laine did a nice job but it had a slickness
that was a bit too Las Vegas for the song. Seamus channels Tex just fine. For me the high point in a CD with no low points.

Marty Robbins had the ability to add a taste of urgency to his voice in songs. Especially in The Ballad of the Alamo and in Big Iron. Seamus gets that urgency in a few spots in Big Iron which is a lot more than I ever have with the song. Cattle Call is exactly as Seamus described it. His riff on a definitive song.

There are some required Sons of The Pioneers songs. And again these are the definitive songs for this seminal western swing band. The hallmark of the Sons was the harmony yodels and the fiddle guitar work that is every bit as good as Django Reinhardt and Stefan Grappelli.( Listen to Kilocycle Stomp) Seamus and company can't match that effort and don't try. He does some fine renditions of Cool Water, Tumblin' Tumble Weeds, and Way out There. I'm sure Bob Nolan would have been very happy with the effort. Way Out There is song that got me yodeling. Interestingly I can yodel it just fine and sing it just fine, just not together.

The musicians in the back ground are also some additional jewelry on this disc. Bob Radford's tasty harmonica work is quite fine. He does fine work on guitar, and keyboards as well. Bob Spates plays a solid support fiddle. He takes the fiddle in nice directions that play well with Dave Giererich's pedal steel and dobro work.

Alex Meixner(no relation maybe) plays some of the worlds finest accordion. He also adds just the right spice to Do Not Forsake Me giving it a subtle Tex-Mex feel. His intro and instrumental work in Happy Trails has a gypsy flavor that is simply captivating.

Those songs take me back to being a kid on Cross Lake and hearing Marty Robbins on WPAW from Syracuse NY. Thanks Seamus for the CD.

Don Meixner