Ballads of the Frontier Partisans

To tell a story in song — there can be no higher calling. Herewith, for your listening pleasure, music for the Frontier Partisans.

 

• El Paso songwriter and artist Tom Russell captures the American West — in all its stark beauty and tragedy — better than anyone else I know. His “The Sky Above, The Mud Below” is like a Cormac McCarthy story in the key of A-minor. Then there’s “Tonight We Ride” in which an old frontier partisan, who may or may not be a reliable narrator, spins tales of Pancho Villa, Black Jack Pershing, whorehouses and reposado gold tequila. “If our bones bleach on the desert we’ll consider we are blessed…”

My current favorite Tom Russell song is “The Crosses of San Carlos,” which calls up the ghosts of Cochise and Geronimo and an old Mexican jaguar…

• Legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Ian Tyson gives us the story of the Mustang in “La Primera”

“The Comanches were holy terrors/When they climbed upon my back/ When the grass was tall/ They’d raid a thousand miles…”

Good stuff.

• One of the finest storytelling songwriters of my generation, Steve Earle wrote his Civil War ballad “Ben McCulloch” at the ripe age of 18. He didn’t release it until 1995’s “Train a-Comin’” record, which marked his comeback from his drug-fueled “vacation in the ghetto.”

McCulloch was a Texas Ranger who won fame leading irregulars in the Mexican War and later became a Confederate general. Earle’s Confederate private doesn’t think he’s such a damn hero…

Also on “Train a-Comin’” is “Mercenary Song,” a tale of a couple of drifters looking for trouble with Pancho Villa.

• The movie “All the Pretty Horses” was a weak rendering of Cormac McCarthy’s National Book Award winning opener to his Border Trilogy — but the soundtrack by Marty Stuart is fantastic. When I want to head for the border, I put this one in the truck CD player and I’m there.

• “The Last of the Mohicans” soundtrack is hands-down my favorite soundtrack of all time. It’s full of evocative moments that transport the listener to the deep forests of the New York Frontier c. 1757, but the centerpiece is an interpretation of “The Gael” by Scottish songwriter and composer Dougie McLean. I had the pleasure of interviewing McLean in advance of a concert a couple of years ago, and he cited “The Gael” as one of his proudest compositions — he loved having his piece in the movie, evoking frontiersmen and Indians in the American forest.

Lots of folks do the tune now, but this is my favorite version What can I say, it’s fun to go feral.

There’s plenty more where those came from, including a few from yours truly, but those will keep for another night and another campfire.