That's funny. I was reading this thread and wondered why I didn't mention any of the great songs on Tom Russell's "Indians Cowboys Horses Dogs" CD. Then I noticed that I last posted to this thread in 2003. That CD was released in early '04. Duh. Mudcat messes up your time sense.

"Tonight We Ride" is one of my favorite songs ever. Joyfully antiheroic. I'm also very fond of "No Telling," by Linda Thompson, which Tom made into a cowboy song by changing just a few words (with her blessing, as I understand it). I'd have sung it at Kendall and Jacqui's wedding if I'd been there and nobody had suppressed me.

There is also a wonderful cover of "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts," done by Russell, Joe Ely, and Eliza Gilkyson performing as a committee; one of "East Texas Red," and one of Marty Robbins's "El Paso," which is probably the only cover that doesn't really measure up - but then the original came out at an impressionable time in my life, and I'm sentimental about it. And Tom didn't have Grady Martin.

Also, two settings by Tom of Paul Zarzyski poems, "Bucking Horse Moon" and "All This Way for the Short Ride," and a very funny song about Edward Abbey, using the tune of "Buffalo Skinners."

My ten CDs for a desert island would include this one, "Cowboyography" and "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs." That leaves only seven for all other genres. I could be in trouble.

Peter