Singing in the Saddle

The History of the Singing Cowboy
Author: Douglas B. Green
Ranger Doug’s ever-popular history of Western Music
Paper – $26.95
978-0-915608-45-4
Publication Date
Paperback: 12/10/2024
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About the Book

A singing cowboy himself, Douglas B. Green is uniquely suited to write the story of the singing cowboy, from the early days of vaudeville and radio, through the heyday of movie westerns before World War II, to the current revival. He provides rich and careful analysis of the studio system that made Gene Autry and Roy Rogers famous, and he documents the role that country music and regional television played in carrying on the singing cowboy tradition after the war. Green’s story reveals how the imagery of the singing cowboy has become such a potent force that even now country musicians don cowboy hats to symbolically take part in the legend.

About the Author

Douglas B. Green is a music historian and performer. As Ranger Doug (the Idol of American Youth), he founded Riders in the Sky, the premier Western group of the modern era.

Reviews

“Green brings both savvy and wry good humor to Singing in the Saddle, a lively account of the singing cowboy as both a show-business phenomenon and an icon of American popular culture.”--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"This is the most comprehensive, most thoroughly researched, and in my view, most readable book ever published on the singing cowboys. . . . The author's writing skills make it fun to read. It's fascinating!"--The Western Way

"Throughout, Singing in the Saddle does what the best singing-cowboy movies did--it offers an escape to a world where the skies are never cloudy and the good guys always win."--Country Weekly

"For real fans, Singing in the Saddle is a bunkhouse pal, a must-have chronicle of the personalities and the music that rode the range together into our Western dreams."--Houston Chronicle