Now, if you are a big fan of three earnest, hardworking, but heartbreakingly DORKY fellows, channeling Gene Autry, you will give this album a BIG ol' western Five. If you think Western swing is only truly
enjoyable if it comes from REAL cowboy groups, or folks like "Gene Autry" or "Sons of The Pioneers," then you will be tempted to rate this disc a big goose egg, and listening to the whole dang thing will be about as fun as a root canal.

Don't misinterpret this, "Riders In The Sky" do what they do very well - but then again so does Danielle Steel. and that don't mean she's gettin' a Pulitzer anytime soon. There are charming aspects of these fellows' output. Their musicianship is unquestionable, especially Woody Paul's killer fiddlework. Their yodelling licks are a hoot and and a thrill. Their lyrics, at times, are superbly crafted and witty - sometimes TOO much so. Of course, to add to the REST of the annoyances of this album, the lyrics aren't enclosed. But overall, this, like all the rest of their music, is Hee Haw without any Hees or Haws. Flat humor, interchangeable monotony of style, and so much "Aw-shucks" fakiness that it oozes out of your CD player like molasses, make this album most definitely a groaner and a half.

No need to examine individual tracks on this CD. All the fast ones are attempts to be funny and evoke Monatana/Wyoming cowboy spirits, and all the slow ones are supposed to make one angst-ridden for cactus-laden visages and tumblin' tumbleweeds. Except for one tune - one that ironically proves why this album is, at its heart, empty. A song like "The Ballad of Palindrome/ Palindrome" is indeed a witty masterpiece of lyric wizardry, with lots of play-on words lyrics that read the same backwards and forewards. But, would Allan "Rocky" Lane, Tex Ritter and their contemporaries be trying to shove linguistic circus tricks into their TRUE cowboy music? I think not.

Again if you are a fan of this hokum, more power to you, and this album will not dissappoint. As for the rest of us, I'm afraid all we want to give "A
Great Big Western Howdy" is a "Great Big please shut up, take your rhinestone shirts and your ersatz cowboy crap and get the hell away from me."