JOHNNY BAKER “The Rodeo in the Sky” LP

Description

JOHNNY BAKER ’COWBOY RODEO LP – “The Rodeo in the Sky”

Written and recorded by Johnny Baker of Edwards, Missouri, self-released, no label. Recorded in Columbia, MO.

Factory-Sealed and in 100% perfect condition, guaranteed.

Side A
The Rodeo In The Sky
It’s Almost Rodeo Time
The Old Saddle Bronco Rider
Microphone Bandit
The Bucking Horse Sale
Deep Down Dixie Cowboy

Side B
My Old Horse
A Lover, A Fighter, And A Riggin’ Rider
I Long For Days I Used To Rodeo
She’s the Barrel Racer
Ballad Of Fred Cochran
Wild And The Free
Easy Rider

“In the 1950s, bronc rider Johnny Baker became the first musician to dedicate his career solely to rodeo music. Baker eventually wrote, produced, recorded, and marketed at least four rodeo albums, Songs of the Rodeo (Audio Arts, 1964), Let’er Buck (FF&S, 1965), Rodeoin’ with Johnny Baker (1966), and The Rodeo in the Sky (1974). These obscure albums exploit the bronc-buster motif in such songs as « Son, Don’t Ride the Buckin’ Bronco, » « Ballad of Billy the BullRider, » and « Don’t Hang off the Side. » Baker expanded the rodeo-music genre, exploring the mystique of non-roughstock events, the nomadic lifestyle of rodeo men, their view of animals, and their shifting attitudes toward women. Songs like « Rodeo Widow », « Small Town Show, » « Timed Event Blues, » « Microphone Bandit, » and « Easy Rider » are based on the oral traditions and taletypes in which Baker was himself immersed during his rodeo-cowboy years. These songs greatly expanded the number of themes available to future rodeo-music artists.

[Michael Allen, Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination]

“Wow! Johnny Baker rodeo-obsessed madness sure is something else.  His songs were recorded in a perfect, stripped-down manner, just him and his guitar, and his vocals have a wonderful, reverb-drenched country toughness. Every single one of his tunes is about rodeoin’, and yes, that’s a picture of him on the cover! His music is so darn unique that it’s difficult to compare him to anyone else. The only comparison that I can really make is to Michael Hurley, who shares a very similar vocal howlin’ style to Baker.”