Hold on to your hat!
Here's some behind the scenes news about UnXpected!
Phoebe, The Yodeling Cowgirl
The first song on the cd "Phoebe, the Yodeling Cowgirl" was written by Ranger Doug and performed with Riders in the Sky - - famed members of the Grand Ole Opry, 2-time Grammy winners and stars of the stage, screen, & legacy artists of the American west. They originally recorded "Jessie, the Yodeling Cowgirl" and released it as part of the massive hit movie Toy Story II.
They changed the title of the song especially for Phoebe's album.
I Want To Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart
Written and first recorded in 1935 by Ruby Blevins, best known to American audiences as Patsy Montana, this was the first country song by a female artist to sell more than one million copies.
Montana wrote the song in 1934 when she was feeling lonely and missing her boyfriend. It was recorded a year later almost as a fluke when producer Art Satherley needed one more song at a Prairie Ramblers recording session. Montana was the group's lead singer at the time.
The Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time and her record was added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry list of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important" American sound recordings.
If I Could Only Learn To Yodel was recorded by Patsy Montana and her Buckaroos in December 1947 at the RCA Victor Studio in Hollywood, CA.
The Yodeling Blues
(Down in the Valley)
This song was originally performed by Carolina Cotton, "The Yodeling Blues Bombshell". It was recorded in 1950 at the Castle Studio in The Tulane Hotel in Nashville, TN.
Cotton was considered a world champion yodeler. In the 1940's, she toured with Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys and then went on the road with Sons of the Pioneers.
She made several western films with leading actors such as Gene Autry & was a radio star.
Yodeling Blues was written by Johnny Mercer & Robert Emmett Dolan.
In addition, Boo Hoo Blues was written by Carolina Cotton.
Over the Mountain
Uncle Dave Macon was born shortly after the Civil War and was considered the first superstar of the Grand Ole Opry.
On November 6, 1925, Uncle Dave and Sid Harkreader were asked to perform at the Ryman Auditorium because it was to become the home of the Grand Ole Opry, a Saturday night concert that was transmitted by radio throughout the American south.
Uncle Dave was one of the first artists to be invited onto the Opry show and he remained there almost up to the time of his passing in 1952.
Over the Mountain was first recorded and released by Uncle Dave in 1929.
Prairie Woman
This song was originally performed by Adell Hall Ward, a folk singer better known as Vera Hall. She was born in Livingston, Alabama in 1902 and established one of the most stunning collections of American folk music on record.
Discovered by John Lomaz and recorded for the Library of Congress, Lomaz wrote: "she had the loveliest voice I ever recorded."
Vera Hall recorded this song as "Black Woman" and also as "Wild Ox Moan", the name by which it became popular in the folk revival.
It's a song about loneliness and abandonment, a struggle many women faced during the American exploration of the west.
Colorado Trail
Colorado Trail is a traditional American cowboy song published in 1927 by American poet, biographer, journalist, & 3-time Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sandburg for his book American Songbag.
Sandburg wrote he learned the song from a doctor in Duluth Minnesota who heard it from a badly injured cowboy being treated in his hospital.
Co-arranged by Lee Hays of The Weavers, it was made popular by the Kingston Trio.
Cowboy Hat
written by Trinity Seely
Western Music Association 2014 song of the year