Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs [Bonus Tracks]

1	Big Iron 3:58
2	A Hundred And Sixty Acres 1:42
3	They're Hanging Me Tonight 3:06
4	Cool Water 3:11
5	Billy The Kid 2:21
6	Utah Carol 3:15
7	The Strawberry Roan 3:25
8	The Master's Call 3:07
9	Running Gun 2:12
10	El Paso 4:21
11	In The Valley 1:51
12	The Little Green Valley 2:30
13	The Hanging Tree Bonus Track 2:53
14	Saddle Tramp Bonus Track 2:06
15	El Paso Bonus Track / Full-Length Version 4:38

Barnes & Noble

One of the first concept albums in country-music history, Marty Robbins's GUNFIGHTER BALLADS may be the most underrated of all these reissues. Robbins made the western song a vital part of a career cut tragically short by a heart attack in 1982, when he was only 57 years old. Nowhere did his interest in and knowledge of the Old West play out better than on this 1959 album. Most of the songs are Robbins's originals (including the definitive western epic "El Paso," included here in its original, near-five-minute version) that offer persuasive arguments for his often-neglected skill as a writer. His lyrics display an acute eye for historically accurate detail, both personal and atmospheric, and a sense of narrative drama that you'd expect from Louis L'Amour. Tall tales on the order of "They're Hanging Me Tonight" and the harrowing "The Master's Call" are masterful works. Bonus tracks include the hit single "The Hanging Tree," but the real gift was already on the original album: a smooth, yearning version of the great Bob Nolan's "Cool Water" that brooks no comparison save for the Sons of the Pioneers' original version. David McGee

All Music Guide

Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs was Marty Robbins' first album to consist entirely of Western and cowboy music. Containing the hit single "El Paso," the album was divided between originals, traditional cowboy songs, and contemporary Western songs. The result was a successful and thoroughly entertaining celebration of cowboy songs and Western movies, particularly since the songs are alternately idealistic and adventurous. Sure, Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs doesn't deal in reality, but it is grounded in myth. It just happens to be one of the most effective and romantic statements of the cowboy mythology recorded in the late '50s and early '60s. [The 1999 CD reissue contains three bonus tracks: "The Hanging Tree," "Saddle Tramp," and "El Paso."] Stephen Thomas Erlewine