Western music icon to speak at IWMA convention

Nov. 4—Douglas Green says that learning to yodel is like learning to play the trumpet.

"It's awful at first," said Green, better known as Ranger Doug of the Western music group Riders in the Sky. "You are best off practicing in your car with the doors shut and the windows closed."

Yodeling goes with Western songs like spurs go with cowboy boots, and Green is recognized as one of the finest practitioners of the art.

He said he got a head start on learning how.

"My Uncle Hank and Uncle Arvid played guitar, did Western music and sang the old songs, and Arvid yodeled, so I grew up listening to it," Green said during a phone interview from his home in Nashville, Tennessee. After moving to Nashville in 1968, Green was influenced by unparalleled yodeler Elton Britt.

"I tried to master all he could do," he said.

Green will be in Albuquerque this week to attend the International Western Music Association convention at Hotel Albuquerque, 800 Rio Grande NW. He is the speaker at the convention's opening lunch, noon-1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"I'm going to give an overview of my years in (IWMA), from the founding in 1988 to now," he said.

Might be he'll mix in a little yodeling, too.

Singing cowboys

Riders in the Sky, which has released more than three dozen full-length albums, celebrates its 45th anniversary this week. Green will leave the IWMA gathering early to join his Riders cohorts for an anniversary concert Thursday, Nov. 10, at the Franklin Theater in Franklin, Tennessee.

Besides Green, the group includes Fred LaBour (Too Slim), bass and vocals; Paul Woodrow Chrisman (Woody Paul), fiddle and vocals; and Joey Miskulin (the CowPolka King), accordion and vocals.

Green, 76, sings, yodels and plays guitar.

"My Uncle Hank gave me his old Montgomery Ward guitar," he said. "I've still got it. It's hanging here on the wall."

His uncles played a role in blazing Green's trail to Western music, but he said growing up in the 1950s had a lot to do with it as well.

"The music was common and prevalent," he said. "It was on TV and everywhere. Cowboys were everywhere."

Green's 2002 book "Singing in the Saddle" is credited with being the first comprehensive study of singing cowboys in the movies.

"Tex Ritter was my favorite," he said. "He seemed more authentic than the other guys. But then I got into the singers with the pretty voices — Ken Curtis, Jimmy Wakely, Lloyd Perryman with the Sons of the Pioneers. I was really into the harmony. And, of course, we all love Gene (Autry) and Roy (Rogers)."

Green's boyhood affection for Western music was revived when he heard the Sons of the Pioneers performing in Tulsa in 1974.

"I thought this music is being relegated to nostalgia and it shouldn't be," he said. "We set about to change that."

Poet and picker

The original version of the Riders in the Sky — Green, LaBour and Bill Collins — first performed on Nov. 11, 1977 in a little watering hole in Nashville.

Western music has been the group's pride and passion ever since.

"The lyrics are so poetic and intelligent," Green said. "But the music can be quite complicated. Both the poet and the picker in me fell in love with it."

He said Western music has a distinct niche in the American musical mosaic.

"It is still about the outdoors, free living, fresh air and self-reliance," he said. "It's about living life the cowboy way."

Western music Showcase IWMA Convention

WHEN: 6-9 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8

WHERE: Best Western- Rio Grande, 1015 Rio Grande NW

HOW MUCH: No cover

WHEN: Wednesday, Nov. 9, to Sunday, Nov. 13

WHERE: Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town, 800 Rio Grande NW

MORE INFO: For ticket information and full schedule, go to iwesternmusic.org. Daytime music showcases are free.