Colin McSloy - Cowboy Dream (The Ballad Of Johnny Cash)

Hear The Track Here

Having been long exposed to such excellent online (ie unsigned) country talent such as Morris P Rainville and the incomparable Chairs I have to admit a definite liking for music that makes you go yeeeeehhhaaaahhh. Silly I know, but there it is. It has to be real country though, which completely rules out anything coming out of Nashville these days. American country music has nothing whatsoever to do with country and western. Nor is it the usual ploy of making an American rock song and then calling it country which happens more often than not. Nope my favourite country is the music made in America during the expansion of that country; bluegrass, fiddles, banjos and yes, even a tad of what used to be known as 'folk' music.

Yes, I agree. A big yeeehhhaaaahhh for that. Now, can we get on?

If you are now wondering why I am flapping my gums about real country when - as you can see - Colin McSloy appears to be a Pop Rock artist, at least according to the genre definition. However, look closer on the page and you will see a cover of Hank Williams' Your Cheating Heart as well as Cowboy Dream (The Ballad Of Johnny Cash). Both Hank and Mr Cash are - by my lights anyway - the heart of country music. The track is, instrumentally at least, fairly authentic featuring pedal steel, lotsa jangly guitars but - to my ears - it doesn't really qualify under my own peculiar notion of what country is or isn't.

Cowboy Dream is well performed and produced but there, I'm afraid, I'm gonna have to stop being so nice. Now maybe the whole country thing got in the way, and I got predjudiced by it or this track just isn't my thing. Reminding me vocally of an early Cameron Bastedo, the song kinda plods along (not in a western way though) and in truth the arrangement and performance have more to do with yer average american rock song. To be sure, if the arrangement and pulse of the track were rethought this may well be a track I could get into but as it stands now its only of passing interest. Instrumentally though, I suspect that there must be more to this artist than this kinda stodgy track.