It's the Cowboy Way: The Amazing True Adventures of Riders in the Sky.(Book Review)

It's the Cowboy Way: The Amazing True Adventures of Riders in the Sky. Don Cusic. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003.

The popular western quartet The Riders in the Sky consists of Douglas Green (Ranger Doug), Fred LaBour (Too Slim), Woody Paul (Woody Paul), and Joey Miskulin (The Cowpolka King). They are a unique musical and entertainment phenomenon, but they also embody some of America's most cherished symbols. It begins with "the cowboy way." Asked what is the cowboy way, Ranger Doug answered, "Well, in this year of situational ethics and difficult moral places, when you're caught between the rock and the hard place of bad ideas, just ask yourself, 'What would Gene, Roy, Tex or Ranger Doug do?' That's the cowboy way" (172). Shucks, ma'am, the cowboy way is America's ethical system. It is why Ronald Reagan was elected president, and it is why America is feared, respected, and laughed at in about equal measure around the world. It takes a group like Riders in the Sky to represent that ethical system in our popular culture.

The Riders are musically inspired by the Sons of the Pioneers, the close-harmonizing singing cowboys of the 1930-1950 era. One of the Pioneers' founding members, Leonard Slye, became Roy Rogers. Roy, along with Gene Autry and Tex Ritter, are those with whom Ranger Doug identifies. They appeared in scores of B western movies in the 1940s and 1950s, and on television about the same time as Hopalong Cassidy, the Cisco Kid, and Annie Oakley. These characters personified the cowboy way for the Baby Boom generation. They were humble, strong, purveyors of justice in the west. They shot only to disarm, not to kill. They instructed a generation in peacemaking and compassionate justice.

The Riders in the Sky formed in 1977. Although they tapped the movies' singing cowboy for musical inspiration, the 1960s also influenced them. They were part Sons of the Pioneers and part Firesign Theater. Each member had a personal tagline: Ranger Doug was the Idol of American Youth, Too Slim was the Man with a Dozen Friends, Woody Paul was the King of the Cowboy Fiddlers, and Joey Miskulin was the Cowpolka King. The Riders were among the best educated pop culture ...