Tex Owens Cattle Call (CD)

'If Tex were still with us, he'd be collecting handsome royalties from LeAnn Rimes' 1996 Cattle Call duet with Eddy Arnold on her multi-platinum 'Blue' album. Tex's 1934 original, just vocal and guitar, appears in this 22-song collection, along with five other 1934 Decca recordings (two with the Texas Rangers), four early 1950s sides with his West Coast Rangers, and a dozen undated demos by this classic Western songwriter. The accompanying booklet, rich with period photos from the Owens family album, enhances the sound of Tex's keening falsetto with informative background on this Depression-style Western radio star remembered by one cohort as 'a kind man and a good car mechanic.'