Customer Rating: 
Summary: Family Favorite
Comment: My family loves this CD! Riders in the Sky provide entertaining family-friendly takes on new and classic songs. It's a CD that the kids can listen to, and yet the parents will still enjoy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Still My Favorite
Comment: I originally purchased this recording on vinyl LP and I still have it. When I am traveling this is one CD that is always with me. This is simply Riders at their best -- live. My familiy and I have seen Riders live several times and this recording is what we always listen to on the way home. This work captures the experience, atmosphere and feel of a live Riders show.
Ride on Saddle Pals!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hardcore Fans Only
Comment: This album is for hardcore Riders in the Sky fans only. It has a few well-sung songs framed with boring humor, self-mockery, and pointless patter. The phrase "the cowboy way" never fails to elicit a laugh from their in-studio audience. If YOU think the phrase is hilarious, you should buy this. Otherwise, skip it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Too much palaver
Comment: This may be a fine way to relive your concert experience with these cowboys, but if you're looking for music, and something you can listen to over and over, I'd skip this album. Frankly, I don't care if this is their first major label album, nor do I want to hear corny patter for over half the CD. I want the music that made them famous in the first place. I wish I could send this one back.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This IS the Cowboy Way!
Comment: This is a live recording - just "Woody Paul" on fiddle, "Too Slim" on bass, and "Ranger Doug, the Idol of American Youth" on guitar. All three singing and carrying on. It should be listed in the "comedy" section as well - IT IS FUNNY!The Riders in the Sky play COWBOY music. Pure cowboy music, in the tradition of Sons of the Pioneers, Tex Ritter, Roy Rogers. None of the synthesizer-washed, big-production, string-section, countrified "pop" music that passes for "Western" music nowadays!
The title refers to their frequently-repeated axiom, "It might be the easy way, but it wouldn't be the Cowboy Way." The recording is full of comedic moments - "Mister Sincere," in which Too Slim gushes to the audience about how much they are loved by the group, and "The Salting of the Slug," a daring tale of adventure. But by and large, it is a recording of top-notch, genuine cowboy music, by three guys who know it well and love what they're doing.
If Riders in the Sky come to a state fair near you, DON'T MISS `EM! In the meantime, treat yourself to this recording, that really captures the essence of those live performances.
