Musical Links     

Roger Hall's Cowboy Songs Corral website has info and photos on several cowboy movie performers and various western tunes: http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/cowboysongs.htm

Tony Bolton writes about Smiley and Dallas Burnette and the Georgia Crackers musical group which worked in some Charles Starrett/Durango Kid films: http://thenostalgialeague.yuku.com/topic/1710/t/The-Georgia-Crackers-of-the-Durango-Kid-Series.html

The Century Of Country website has biographies on various country and western performers: http://www.countryworks.com/

The Western Music Association Hall of Fame winners include Johnny Bond, Rex Allen, Tex Ritter, Bob Wills, Gene Autry, the Sons of the Pioneers, Roy Rogers, Jimmy Wakely, Monte Hale, Eddie Dean, the Riders of the Purple Sage, lots more: http://www.westernmusic.com/hall-of-fame.html

The Doye O'Dell website has a bunch of images and a biography: http://doyeodell.com/

CowboyPoetry.com is a project of the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, Inc. They have lots of info on Curley Fletcher, who was a prolific poet and also composed some western tunes. His most famous song is "The Strawberry Roan": http://cowboypoetry.com/fletcher.htm

You might find some additional info on individuals and groups at the hillbilly music website: http://www.hillbilly-music.com/groups/index.php

Brad's Page Of Steel site on steel guitars includes info on Noel Boggs, Joaquin Murphey, Leon McAuliffe, more: http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/steel.html

The official website for singer/yodeler Carolina Cotton is at: http://www.carolinacotton.org/

Steve Hathaway has a western swing website at http://www.westernswing.com/, and you may also want to visit his western swing links page: http://www.westernswing.com/Links.html

The official Bob Wills website is at: http://www.bobwills.com/

There's a website on the famous Phelps Brothers - Norman, Earl and Willie. There's info and a variety of images documenting the period when they were doing westerns as members of the Ray Whitley and the Six-Bar Cowboys group: http://phelpsbrothers.tripod.com/

Ted Foster has a website on the Barn Dance and WLS Radio: http://www.geocities.com/~f2023/wls.html

If you're looking for a composer, song, who has the copyright, etc., try one of these links:

ASCAP's ACE Database allows for queries:
http://www.ascap.com/ace/search.cfm?mode=search

BMI has a search function for song title, artist, composer, etc.:
http://repertoire.bmi.com/startpage.asp

Johnny Bond's daughter Sherry Bond had a website on her Dad. But as of early 2006, the site was no longer working (http://www.johnnybond.com/).

The website on a new CD for The Frontiersmen singing group has some vintage photos of Roy Rogers, Eddie Dean, Cactus Mack & the Saddle Tramps, more, and the URL is: http://frontiersmen.net/photos.html

Adrian DeBee has a website honoring the novelty singing group, The Hoosier Hotshots, is at: http://www.hoosierhotshots.com/

The Sons of the Pioneers singing group website is at: http://www.sonsofthepioneers.org/

The Riders of the Purple Sage singing group website is at: http://www.ridersofthepurplesage.com/

The official Riders In The Sky website is at: http://ridersinthesky.com/

Roughstock.com has some info on Roy, Gene and the Sons of the Pioneers, and their influence on cowboy music and the American culture of the 1930s and 1940s: http://www.roughstock.com/history/cowboy.html

Roughstock also has some info on 'western swing', and in particular, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys: http://www.roughstock.com/history/westernswing.html

cowgirls.com website has a page on Patsy Montana: http://www.cowgirls.com/dream/cowgals/montana.htm

Here's the link to the Country Music Association (CMA): http://www.cmaworld.com/

The Country Music Hall of Fame winners include Tex Ritter, Bob Wills, Gene Autry, the Sons of the Pioneers, Johnny Bond, Roy Rogers: http://www.countrymusichalloffame.com/site/inductees-list.aspx

The Nashville Songwriters Foundation Hall Of Fame includes Smiley Burnette, Jimmy Wakely, Gene Autry, Johnny Bond, Ray Whitley, Tex Ritter, Bob Nolan, Bob Wills, more.  The link below will take you to their website and when you get there, click on 'Hall of Fame': http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/

The Big Bands website includes a section on western swing music: http://www.nfo.net/usa/weswing.html

There's a bio on Bob Wills at the Famous Texans website: http://www.famoustexans.com/bobwills.htm

Many of the cowboy performers such as Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Max Terhune, Rex Allen and others worked at the National Barn Dance radio show which eminated from WLS radio in Chicago (and much later over Chicago's WGN radio).  The Barn Dance began their broadcasts in 1924, one year before the Grand Ole Opry show started.  You can read a bit of history about the Barn Dance at:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/RADIO/c_w/essay3.html
http://www.otrsite.com/articles/artjf008.html

Some additional history on Chicago's WLS Radio, the 'Prairie Farmer' station, and home of the Barn Dance, is at:
http://www.wlshistory.com/WLS30/
http://www.wlshistory.com/NBD/
http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/wls/contents.html