This CD contains 16 of the 30 songs that
Ritter cut for Decca between 1935 and 1939. It is not his best material -- it was on Capitol that he had his hits -- but it is, in many ways, his most interesting body of songs. The early material here is more rough-hewn than most Western songs of the era, and, in keeping with
Ritter's stage success as a folk-type balladeer in the cast of the Broadway show Green Grow the Lilacs, draws from folk as much as Western material. His first single, "Sam Hall," was a traditional British folk ballad that
Ritter had sung in the show. "(Take Me Back to My) Boots and Saddle" comes off almost like a field recording, with none of the guile or sophistication that one expected of singing cowboys, and
Ritter's natural, untutored baritone voice seems to come right out of the bunkhouse rather than the theater or the Hollywood soundstage. By 1936, and "The Hills of Old Wyoming," "High, Wide and Handsome," and "Sing, Cowboy, Sing," he was already developing a more sophisticated sound in keeping with his cowboy movies, although
Ritter always sounded grittier than
Gene Autry or
the Sons of the Pioneers -- he sounded more like a real cowboy who was singing, rather than a singing cowboy, with a beautifully raw, honest quality that made him more realistic if not as overtly attractive as a singer. Some of the latest material here, such as "When Its Lamplighting Time in the Valley," is engaging Western pop, a match for any of
Autry's records in sophistication but driven by
Ritter's unique, mournfully expressive baritone voice. ~ Bruce Eder