It's the Cowboy Way!

August 1, 2003
In 1977, Riders in the Sky rode onto the music scene with a brand of Western music that recalled the days of the Sons of the Pioneers. Beginning their career at a little club in Nashville-Herr Harry's Phranks N' Steins-the band soon developed a loyal following. Cusic, who was the band's first manager, traces the evolution of this energetic group of yodelers from their roots in Michigan to their performance on the soundtracks for Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc. In an awkward pastiche of first-person memoir and third-person reportage, Cusic allows each member of the band to tell his story before launching forth on a year-by-year chronology of the band's performances and analysis of their albums. The book contains a complete discography, "sessionography," and bibliography. Cusic's dull and amateurish writing makes for tedious reading about a group whose hallmarks are humor and lively music, and his fan's notes give us a flatly hagiographic account of the band. Still, anyone who has laughed and sung along with this unique group of cowboy musicians will want to read this book. Recommended primarily for libraries with large music collections.-Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Lancaster, PA

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