Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD

Subject: Seamus Kennedy CDs
From: olddude
Date: 05 Apr 10 - 08:49 PM

I got a wonderful surprise in the mail, Thank you Seamus. Listening to the music all day, there is not a bad song on any CD Seamus ever did. What a gift and what an incredible performer ... Thank you

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Artful Codger
Date: 15 Jan 10 - 04:40 PM

However, I must point out that there are no REAL cowboy songs on this CD; even the radio/film "cowboys" sang them occasionally.

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: JedMarum
Date: 15 Jan 10 - 12:41 PM

What a joy this album is!

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 15 Jan 10 - 12:05 PM

I forgot to mention in my review Seamus Kennedy's own song "I want to be a Cowboys Side Kick." The song is based on Patsy Montana's "I wanna Be a Cowboys Sweetheart". There are some great lines in the song most notably "The men who saved the men who saved the west." This is pretty literate stuff for Seamus. Not quite bard like yet but pretty OK. The song isn't a parody of Patsy's tune but a companion piece. It is a good use of the melody and concept from the opposite side of the bunkhouse.

I've listened to this CD for a couple weeks now and I tends to grow on you as you listen. It gets 9 1/2 out of 10 gallons on the Cactus Countdown.

Don

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Jan 10 - 11:57 AM

Sidekicks and Sagebrush arrived today, and I played it almost straightaway. Let me tell you, this is my 10th Seamus Kennedy CD, and the best so far. It's beautifully recorded and produced, and shows off his voice to it's full advantage, and.........................yer man can yodel too!
Well done Seamus, and thanks for a great treat

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: GUEST,Jed Marum
Date: 15 Jan 10 - 11:46 AM

WOW!

I just received this album and have had it blasting all morning!!

What a perfectly delightful and positively enjoyable album! Such a selection of great songs and they just bounce from track to track, yodeling and bubbling along - favorite to favorite.

I love it!!

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 11:54 PM

Yes Art, it's on CDBaby.
No Amergin, my chaps....never mind, I'm not going there.

And Clifton, you said you wouldn't tell anyone about that night!
No secrets on the 'Cat.

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Amergin
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 10:19 PM

Just so long as he doesn't wear ass-less chaps....people may think they were in a leather bar....

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: artbrooks
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 08:28 PM

Does CD Baby have it yet? Amazon doesn't.

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Clifton53
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 08:17 PM

Having seen Seamus in Alpine regalia I can only assume that American chaps and spurs is a step up.

Congrats Seamus, you've struck a pleasant chord with this one, as usual. And with "Big Iron" too?? Gotta love it

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 07:07 PM

Susan - the date is Sunday March 9th, starting at 8:30, and yes, it's a cafe in the Annabel Taylor Hall of Cornell, Snackies, that sort of thing.

Bound For Glory is the longest running live folk radio broadcast in North America - on WBVR since 1967.

Hope to see you there. Hardi too. If there's not a hockey game..

And thanks for mentioning it here on the 'Cat!

Seamus

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 01:16 PM

Won't that be ibn your gigbag for the year? I hope to see it too!

Seamus Kennedy
Bound for Glory, Ithaca NY
March 9th was it Seamus?

Time? Details? The BfG site doesn't list them yet.

I know BfG travel-time for MANY Catters makes that a feasible Mud-meet-spot... Mmario, Olddude, Don Meixner.... who else?

Say, didn't BfG as a venue include food and drinks, too? (Innit a Cafe?)

~Susan

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 05:45 PM

Aww, thanks Ron.
When next we meet, I can show you some of my Roy memorabilia.

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 05:20 PM

A brilliant CD!

Seamus, you sound like you were born in a saddle! Your smooth voice brings back great memories of those old cowboy movies!

My mother told me that when I was about a year old she took me to a local department store where Roy Rogers was appearing. He gave me a little flip book that shows Roy riding Trigger when you flip the pictures. I don't remember meeting Roy, but I still have that little book!

I had to end my show with a cut from your CD. What else - "Happy Trails"!!!    Great job!!!

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 02:35 PM

Kendall - from a man who likes Yodeling Slim Clark AND Wilf Carter, both yodeling legends - that is high praise indeed.
And you've issued a challenge: yodel in 6/8 time.
Yes, a yodeling jig! I'll get to work on it right away.

Actually, Rap, I'd prefer to yodel WITH Wylie, and not against him.
Let's not make a contest out of it..

And WYS, you can't threaten me with Hardi. If you weren't there, we'd...
let's not go there. :>)

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Amergin
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 04:08 AM

Oh man...yet another Seamus Kennedy cd to buy, when I can afford it....

Can't wait!

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: kendall
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 07:17 PM

Seamus is a damn fine yodler. I've never heard him do it in 6/8 time, but I'll bet he can if he wants to.

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Rapparee
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 01:28 PM

Seamus, you ought to get together with Wylie Gustafson and have a yodeling contest. My money would be on Wylie, though.

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 12:38 PM

Hmpf!

When I bring that Coors to your stage show I'll fizz it up before pouring it all over your boots, boyo. Or maybe if it's a night we can't both get away, I'll just send Hardi-- he needs the break more than I do. You have to watch that one carefully though; he grew up in a tough neighborhood AND came from a family of sneaky brothers. Don't let the collar fool you! :~)

(refresh)

~Susan

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 11:45 AM

WYS - Don wasn't gushing, it was a carefully thought-out review...and a damn good one!
Worth every penny of that bottle of Ardbeg, Don.

Thanks, Maeve - hope things are looking up for you.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: maeve
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 11:24 AM

Congratulations, Seamus. The preview we heard at Sinsull's house was beautiful.

maeve

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: DonMeixner
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 10:51 AM

I wasn't gushing, I was simply stating opinion or fact. Seamus, thanks for the bottle of Ardbeg.

Don

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 10:20 AM

How come DON gets to gush though?!?!?

~S~

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 01:32 AM

Roy and Gene stamps; I'm setting aside a couple of sheets of those bad boys, uh, good guys!

All seriousness aside, thanks so much for the kind words. I had a ball making this record with my buddy Brad Hayford, who is a brilliant intrumentalist and singer. And a fine yodeler.

Bob Spates can play anything on fiddle - Irish, Scottish, Bluegrass, Country, Swing(he loves Hugh Farr), Jazz, Classical, but he really excels in Tango.

Dave Giegerich on pedal-steel and dobro is a maestro and has played with some of the top names in Country. Why he played with me, I don't know...oh, because he's a session man and has no shame! Thanks, Dave.

And young Alex Meixner is an accordion whiz who also did the trumpet licks on El Paso. Another musical genius who can play any genre well.
He's also a friend of Joey Miskulin - Joey the Cow Polka King from Riders in the Sky - so he was familiar with, and he really got into the spirit of the old movie western/swing music.

The hat, shirt, belt-buckle and boots would look great with my kilt!
Why didn't I think of that!?

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: open mike
Date: 03 Jan 10 - 01:15 AM

thanks for the heads-up about the postage stamp.
here is the "rest of the story" there will be 4
cowboys from the movies pictured on the stamps:

http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2009/pr09_118.htm#cowboys

With the issuance of the "Cowboys of the Silver Screen" stamps, the U.S. Postal Service honors four extraordinary performers who helped make the American Western a popular form of entertainment. Film stars from the silent era through the singing era are featured on the stamps: William S. Hart, Tom Mix, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers. The stamps go on sale April 17.

William S. Hart

William S. Hart (1864-1946) brought a powerful presence and serious approach to early Westerns. Tall and trim, with acting skills honed by years of experience on the New York stage and in productions across the country, Hart became one of the most popular leading men of the silent film era. In his movies, the actor insisted on authentic depictions of the Old West and its people, from their clothes to their lifestyles and complex personalities. He frequently played the stalwart, tough-as-nails cowboy, and his favorite horse was a brown and white pinto named Fritz.

The stamp art is by freelance illustrator Robert Rodriguez, whose work has been featured on more than a dozen previous stamps. Rodriguez based his portrait of William S. Hart on a likeness of the actor that appeared on a poster for the epic film Tumbleweeds (1925).

Tom Mix

Tom Mix (1880-1940) was one of the most celebrated Western film stars of the 1920s. He wowed movie crowds and live audiences alike with his daredevil riding, expert rope handling, unerring marksmanship, and rugged good looks. He also served as a role model for a generation of schoolchildren, maintaining a wholesome screen persona that involved "no cussin' and no drinkin'" by his characters. A legend in his own time, Mix wore oversize Stetsons, fancy suits, and handmade Texas boots with engraved silver spurs. He rode "Tony, the wonder horse," who also became an audience favorite.

The stamp art is by freelance illustrator Robert Rodriguez, whose work has been featured on more than a dozen previous stamps. Rodriguez based his portrait of Tom Mix on a likeness of the actor that appeared on the Cupid's Round Up (1918) movie poster.

Gene Autry

For more than two decades, Gene Autry (1907-1998) entertained movie audiences and won the hearts of millions of fans with his distinctive singing style and easygoing personality. His sorrel-colored horse, Champion, often played a major role in his films, as did frequent sidekicks Smiley Burnette and Pat Buttram. Aside from being one of the most admired cowboys to ever appear on the silver screen, Autry left behind a legacy that includes many hit records, a long-running radio show, and a successful television series.

The stamp art is by freelance illustrator Robert Rodriguez, whose work has been featured on more than a dozen previous stamps. Rodriguez based his portrait of Gene Autry on a likeness of the actor that appeared on a poster for the film Gold Mine in the Sky (1938).

Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers (1911-1998) was a silver screen cowboy who sang his way to stardom. He always played the Western hero, with a warm smile, good character, and strong values. Although he found great success in show business—beginning with his first starring role, in a 1938 film—his modest roots kept him a down-to-earth country boy that Americans couldn't help but admire. For decades, children across the country aspired to be like him and tried to live by the Roy Rogers code of conduct, which stated that boys and girls should "be neat and clean" and "always obey their parents."

The stamp art is by freelance illustrator Robert Rodriguez, whose work has been featured on more than a dozen previous stamps. Rodriguez based his portrait of Roy Rogers on a selection of vintage Rogers materials.

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Big Mick
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 08:21 PM

I keep watching the mail.......

I'm going to call my old buddy, Sparky Lyle, and tell him to hold on to that ball for a bit......

Mick

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 04:20 PM

My copy was supposed to be here last week but this is Saturday.............I am looking forward to it as I also need to keep my Seamus Collection complete! Taking this one on surprised me but I can't wait to get it!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: open mike
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 04:15 PM

filled with all the classics! yee haw, this 'un's a keeper!!
and when Happy Trails comes on, you can just picture riding
off into the sunset!! great selection, great job!

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: DonMeixner
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 04:15 PM

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

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 04:15 PM

I always enjoy listening to Seamus and I love cowboy songs so for me this is great. I've listened to all of the previews:-)

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: wysiwyg
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 04:08 PM

I gotta die with my coots on?

~S~

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: kendall
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 03:38 PM

Seamus, they just announced that the PO dept. is going to issue a Gene Autry stamp. Gotta have some of those.Now, if they come up with a Sunset Carson stamp...snort, maybe not.

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: kendall
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 03:29 PM

Me too John. He is a consummate performer. You did mean like, not lie?

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 03:03 PM

I look forward to hearing it, I lie everything of his I've heard so far

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: gnu
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 02:32 PM

What kinda spasms?

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 02:17 PM

Oh, dammit, now I gotta buy another Seamus CD...somehow the vision of Seamus in a kilt on top of a rearing stallion is causing me to have mental spasms.

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: gnu
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 02:11 PM

Outstanding where? It's bloody cold and snowing, innit?

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: olddude
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 02:02 PM

OUTSTANDING!!!

Dan

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 01:57 PM

Oh, and WYSIWYG, you were THIS close to starting to gush....:>)

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 01:55 PM

Why you ornery polecats! You dadblamed bushwhackers!

Oh no, I've lapsed into sidekick 'cootspeak'.

Thanks for the kind words.

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: kendall
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 01:09 PM

Great fun and what a trip down memory lane. Thanks you old dry gulching sidewinder!

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: SINSULL
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 12:36 PM

I have been playing mine since I got the "rough" copy at Seamus' concert. I love it - all the verses to the choruses I grew up on. Tumbling Tumblewoods, Big Iron, El Paso,and the yodelling. I wish my Dad were alive to share this one.
SINS

Subject: RE: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: gnu
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 12:35 PM

Seamus in cowboy getup... the very thought!

Subject: Seamus Kennedy New Cowboy CD
From: wysiwyg
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 12:18 PM

Sidekicks and Sagebrush arrived just in time for Christmas, but we didn't get a chance to hear it till the other day-- our policy is that any Catter CDs must wait till we can hear them, fresh, together. (So we usually save 'em for long car rides that fit into Hardi's schedule.)

Album Notes {CD Baby Excerpt]

As a kid growing up in Belfast, I really loved the old Western movies with the singing cowboys – Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Rex Allen, Tex Ritter, Eddie Dean; and the non-singing ones like Hopalong Cassidy, the Durango Kid and Lash LaRue; and their sidekicks – the Andys ~ Devine and Clyde; the Fuzzys ~ Knight and St. John; Smiley "Frog" Burnette; and of course the inimitable King of the Sidekicks ~ George "Gabby" Hayes.

And here's a tip o' the Stetson to their musical groups - particularly Bob Nolan and the Sons Of The Pioneers (who occasionally doubled as sidekicks), for their dazzling harmonies and instrumentation, and for all the classic Western songs like Tumbling Tumbleweeds, Cool Water and Way Out There.

And to Foy Willing And The Riders Of The Purple Sage, to Spade Cooley and to some talented groups performing that music today, such as Riders In The Sky with their great yodeler Ranger Doug (the idol of American youth!), and their very own sidekick – Sidemeat. Or the Sons Of The San Joaquin, or Prickly Pair… I could go on, but you'd be reading this all day.

Saturdays would find me and my friends at the Arcadian Picture-house, or maybe the Clonard or the Diamond, for a serial, a B-Western and a cartoon all for sixpence.

For our parents it was a bargain for a couple of hours of peace and quiet.

But in the movie-house, all was not peace and quiet. Far from it.
The shows were interactive, before anyone knew what interactive meant.
If the villain was sneaking up on an unsuspecting Roy or Gene, we'd scream our lungs out at the screen: "Look out, he's behind you!"

And when good ol' Roy or Gene were fighting the bad guys, we'd start fighting and wrestling too, until an usher with his ever-present flashlight came and broke it up. But when he walked away we'd be at it again. Especially if there was a love-scene with kissing between the hero and the damsel in distress. First, there were the catcalls: "Ewww! Yuck!" And the wrestling would start anew.

But it was perfectly OK for a hero to kiss his horse.

Well, I grew up, went to college and got into Irish folk music.
However, those days were never far from my mind, especially when I'd recall the old Western songs from the movies; and when I started doing one or two during my shows I was astonished at how many people remembered them too.

So return with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear when the daring and resourceful cowboys of the silver screen – and their sidekicks – galloped on their gallant steeds into our hearts and memories.

Sidekicks and Sagebrush

====

We've heard THE WHOLE THING but I have nothing to add-- Seamus adjures me from gushing, and while I look forward to seeing him soon in his cowboy getup (and the horse), I'm trying to be good this year! :~)

~Susan