Modern Western

A laugh line from The Blues Brothers, filmed when a lot of radio stations claimed to play "Country/Western music," the real joke was that she was right. The two genres, although often popular among similar audiences, are in fact distinct. Country music has its roots in Appalachian folk songs, themselves Celtic in origin, combined with gospel and blues influences in the South. Western music had its origins in the West, and combined themes of cowboying and ranching, gunfighters and trail songs,* with a southwestern Spanish influence. 

Here are some newer singers doing Western music. Some of them also do country music, including my favorite genre Outlaw Country, but these are Western pieces.

More after the jump.

* One of the best days' works any man ever did was done by Marty Robbins, the day he recorded his album "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs." They did this in a single day because his record company didn't really want him to: they cautioned that he was a country singer, not a Western singer, and ought not to muddle his brand. He replied that he had done so much for them that they owed him the chance to do one thing he wanted. They relented, and let him have a single eight-hour day's use of the studio for his project. One of the songs he recorded was "El Paso," which went to #1 on the country chart. Then it went to #1 on the pop chart. The album is now preserved by the National Registry; that last link was to the Library of Congress. Marty Robbins never had to work another day in his life after recording that album, but he did anyway because he loved what he was doing.