As much as I don’t listen to it a lot, I do like a lot of the
\nmusic of older generations – the music my parents grew up with, or
\nmaybe even that my grandparents grew up with. The problem is that
\ntoday’s generation is so wrapped up with the present-day fads that
\nthey often don’t take the time to check out some of the music that
\nhelped make today’s possible.<\/p>\n
An example is Rex Allen. Another of the singing cowboys, you
\nprobably haven’t heard of him. (Even my father, who I consider to
\nbe knowledgable about all things Baby Boomer, said he didn’t know
\nwho Allen was.) While he might have been eclipsed by others like
\nRoy Rogers, Allen had a powerful voice that went from baritone to
\nbass just as smooth as the whiskey the bad guys were drinking.<\/p>\n
As part of their “Archive Collection”, Walt Disney Records
\nrecently released
\nRex Allen Sings 16 Favorite Songs<\/i>, a 1965 album making its
\ndebut on CD. (This disc can only be ordered from Walt Disney; check
\nout their Web site for more information.) Not so much country as
\noften as it was popular music, it still is a disc that provides a
\nlooking glass into the past and provides for an enjoyable 40
\nminutes.<\/p>\n
If you pick this up expecting country music in the style of Hank
\nWilliams, you might be disappointed. The music contained in these
\n16 songs has many tinges of older, pre-rock popular music, but
\nthere is a distinct Western flavor to the music on this disc. Songs
\nlike “The Little Old Church In The Valley,” “The Streets Of Laredo”
\nand “The Lilies Grow High” echo a feel of a Western one might have
\nseen in the movie houses back in the ’40s and ’50s. (One thing that
\nstruck me was the darker side of some of the songs, especially
\nthose dealing with death – something I wouldn’t have expected on a
\nDisney album.)<\/p>\n
But there are odes to the present on this disc as well (at
\nleast, the present being 1965), with songs like “Lazy River” and “I
\nCan’t Stop Loving You” making a strong presence on the listener. No
\nmatter what he performs, Allen seems to do it with style and grace
\n– and he keeps even the modern Spice Girls-oriented audience
\ninterested.<\/p>\n
Sure, some of the tracks might seem to stretch to the point of
\nnever ending (never mind the fact there isn’t a song on this disc
\nlonger than three-and-a-half minutes), and there are occasional
\nthrowbacks to corniness (“Who Shot The Hole In My Sombrero?”), but
\nthese moments of weakness aren’t often, providing for an overall
\nstrong release.<\/p>\n
Allen might not be the best-known singing cowboy, but as
\nRex Allen Sings 16 Favorite Songs<\/i> proves, he should have
\nbeen. This is easily the most entertaining volume of Disney’s
\n“Archive Collection,” and is one worth the trouble of searching out
\nonline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5961],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35962","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-rex-allen","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35962"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35962"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}