Friday, December 14, 2007

A Cowboy's Christmas


DH in his Silverbelly Stetson.

For several years when Russ was Operations Manager at KRTZ radio in Cortez, CO, he was ruminating a storyline that became "A Cowboy's Christmas". He wrote it out for recording after we'd been transferred to Willcox. For the recording session, he narrated it while a group calling itself 'Cochise Country' just for this session played in the background. It was recorded on different tracks with each instrument and the narration on separate mikes and separate tracks. I was able to watch the procedure and it was amazing what could be done in such a small space in Willcox, AZ! DH chose to name his record label 'Bobwire Records', rather appropriate for the 'Cattle Capital of the U.S.' as Rex Allen called his hometown Willcox. DH and I took the tape up to Phoenix and it was manufactured into 45's within a week.

He's gifting several copies this Christmas, over 20 years later, and asked me to take photos yesterday. One will be enclosed with each copy.

4 comments:

Layl said...

And sadly, the 'cattle capital of the u.s.' and all the holding pens and the rail head are all gone and in it's place the signs say "welcome to willcox, city of museums"... which doesn't bode well for development projections - sounds like pretty much everyone is, well, dead.
WOO-HOO on the recording re-creations - GO RUSS, GO !! Yarn Vixen

Layl said...

Nancy - I have a friend who really enjoys classic western music - does Russ have an extra copy of "A Cowboy's Christmas" he would sell for him?
Yarn Vixen

Linda said...

How cool! And he looks just fab in his stetson. Y'all trade hugs from me, okay?

Anonymous said...

Yes sadly the past is going to fast. The time of singing cowboys gone. At least there is something that accounts for the golden age. Russ should be thanked that he took the time to capture a time fast fading. To think you got to be part of this special event.