COWBOY JOE BABCOCK
Trail Jazz, The Music The Cowboys Dance To
Cowboy Joe’s Good Medicine Show – Please
Don’t Leave Me Anymore – By My Side – San Antonio Rose – No Way To Go
But Down – Smoky Clubs and Dizzy People – I Know That She Loves Me – One
More Memory To Go – She Got Religion – I Think I Fell In Love Again
Tonight – Everything’s Gotta Swing In Texas – A Little Sentimental – The
Stratocaster Song – Cowboy Joe’s G. M. S.-Reprise
Don’t Leave Me Anymore – By My Side – San Antonio Rose – No Way To Go
But Down – Smoky Clubs and Dizzy People – I Know That She Loves Me – One
More Memory To Go – She Got Religion – I Think I Fell In Love Again
Tonight – Everything’s Gotta Swing In Texas – A Little Sentimental – The
Stratocaster Song – Cowboy Joe’s G. M. S.-Reprise
What a surprise in the mail this week. A brand new CD by
one of my favorite Nebraska artists, Cowboy Joe Babcock. Joe has had a
most interesting career. He was born and raised in Spalding, Nebraska.
So was the Glaser Brothers (Put Another Log On The Fire), who took
their consummate country music to Nashville. Since they were all
buddies, Joe soon followed suit, to sing with the Glasers and Marty
Robbins. He became a band member for Marty for seven years, honing his
skills and beginning a tremendously successful songwriting career. You
might remember “I Washed My Hands in Muddy Waters” a #1 hit for
Stonewall Jackson. Or, you might remember Joe for the 25 years he was
on Hee-Haw, most famously as the tenor singer for the many quartets on
that show, his most popular being the ‘cowboy’ version. Here he is back
again, in a most incredibly brilliant musical role. The last time I
reviewed one of Joe’s CD’s I told him I was keeping the record for my
own library. This time he sent me a couple so I can share them with
DJ’s, my number one DJ friend being Dale Eichor on KWMT-radio Fort
Dodge, Iowa, that still plays classic and traditional country music.
Boy, is Dale and his listeners ever going to enjoy this fantastic
resurgence of a music the cowboys loved all the way back to Bob Wills,
and Joe even includes ‘San Antonio Rose’ on this CD, full of equally
well written songs by Joe, and produced by Chimney Rock Records. Joe’s
voice sounds as good now as it did 25 years ago. He’s a ‘real’ country
boy, and he’s a ‘real’ cowboy. Western Swing music has always been a
favorite of mine right up there with ‘real’ traditional and classic
country music. Cowboy Joe Babcock is holding to the ‘truth’ of the
genre in every note, in every word, in every expression, in every
utterance. What a fantastic experience to hear this incredible music
done so well, right now, today, against all the odds in the commercial
music business. This is another one of those million sellers that Joe
Babcock has so deservedly earned. What a delight! He uses a couple of
good fiddlers, Hoot Hester and Jim Buchanan, both of them delightful.
Some of the musicians I know, Pig Robbins on piano, D. J. Fontana
(Elvis’s drummer I used a couple of times. Best ‘steel’ I hear on this
one (he used several) is Curly Chalker on “Smoky Clubs & Dizzy
People.” Harmony on every song it was used is superlative, featuring
Carol and Lorrie Babcock. These girls are superb, and make up a good
portion of the Babcocks as a performing group. Joe wrote twelve of the
fourteen songs on this incredible ‘western’ CD, and they’re all #1’s to
me. For me
I’ve Got One More Memory To Go,” stands tall and proud and my own memory
includes the great Cowboy Joe Babcock as among my friend in the ‘real’
rural music of America. Here it is, once again, and once more my neck
hurts from all the chills I get just listening to this cowboy. Whew,
that’s real music for me! This CD is going directly to the Rural Roots
Music Commission for their “CD of the Year” in western-swing music.
Keep your boots on Joe, I know how these guys think, something nice
waiting for you next year! The Jimmie Rodgers ‘blues’ style on “She Got
Religion” just blew me away. Whew!
one of my favorite Nebraska artists, Cowboy Joe Babcock. Joe has had a
most interesting career. He was born and raised in Spalding, Nebraska.
So was the Glaser Brothers (Put Another Log On The Fire), who took
their consummate country music to Nashville. Since they were all
buddies, Joe soon followed suit, to sing with the Glasers and Marty
Robbins. He became a band member for Marty for seven years, honing his
skills and beginning a tremendously successful songwriting career. You
might remember “I Washed My Hands in Muddy Waters” a #1 hit for
Stonewall Jackson. Or, you might remember Joe for the 25 years he was
on Hee-Haw, most famously as the tenor singer for the many quartets on
that show, his most popular being the ‘cowboy’ version. Here he is back
again, in a most incredibly brilliant musical role. The last time I
reviewed one of Joe’s CD’s I told him I was keeping the record for my
own library. This time he sent me a couple so I can share them with
DJ’s, my number one DJ friend being Dale Eichor on KWMT-radio Fort
Dodge, Iowa, that still plays classic and traditional country music.
Boy, is Dale and his listeners ever going to enjoy this fantastic
resurgence of a music the cowboys loved all the way back to Bob Wills,
and Joe even includes ‘San Antonio Rose’ on this CD, full of equally
well written songs by Joe, and produced by Chimney Rock Records. Joe’s
voice sounds as good now as it did 25 years ago. He’s a ‘real’ country
boy, and he’s a ‘real’ cowboy. Western Swing music has always been a
favorite of mine right up there with ‘real’ traditional and classic
country music. Cowboy Joe Babcock is holding to the ‘truth’ of the
genre in every note, in every word, in every expression, in every
utterance. What a fantastic experience to hear this incredible music
done so well, right now, today, against all the odds in the commercial
music business. This is another one of those million sellers that Joe
Babcock has so deservedly earned. What a delight! He uses a couple of
good fiddlers, Hoot Hester and Jim Buchanan, both of them delightful.
Some of the musicians I know, Pig Robbins on piano, D. J. Fontana
(Elvis’s drummer I used a couple of times. Best ‘steel’ I hear on this
one (he used several) is Curly Chalker on “Smoky Clubs & Dizzy
People.” Harmony on every song it was used is superlative, featuring
Carol and Lorrie Babcock. These girls are superb, and make up a good
portion of the Babcocks as a performing group. Joe wrote twelve of the
fourteen songs on this incredible ‘western’ CD, and they’re all #1’s to
me. For me
I’ve Got One More Memory To Go,” stands tall and proud and my own memory
includes the great Cowboy Joe Babcock as among my friend in the ‘real’
rural music of America. Here it is, once again, and once more my neck
hurts from all the chills I get just listening to this cowboy. Whew,
that’s real music for me! This CD is going directly to the Rural Roots
Music Commission for their “CD of the Year” in western-swing music.
Keep your boots on Joe, I know how these guys think, something nice
waiting for you next year! The Jimmie Rodgers ‘blues’ style on “She Got
Religion” just blew me away. Whew!
RECORD REVIEW BY BOB EVERHART – www.ntcma.net for Country Music News International Magazine