Chris LeDoux : Classic Chris LeDoux

Country Music Reviews

Chris LeDoux : Classic Chris LeDoux

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Chris LeDoux was the genuine article. Many sang about being a cowboy: few ever did it. And many cowboys have tried singing: most have failed.

LeDoux was a real life Country music cowboy. His catalogue is crammed with classics, most of which feature on "Classic Chris Ledoux". Astonishingly, he only ever had ONE top ten hit, a duet with Garth Brooks.

But LeDoux was also a Rodeo star. In 1976, he became Bareback Riding champion. Tragically, just over three years ago, LeDoux died. He was just 56.

The music here is sensational, but what makes the album VERY special is the DVD which comes with the CD. It contains every video LeDoux ever made - the first time they've been available on one disk.

There isn't a single number one on "Classic Chris LeDoux" and only one track which made the top ten, yet LeDoux remains one of Country Music's best known singers. And strangely, that top ten hit - "Whatcha Gonna Do With A Cowboy" (Number 7 in 1992) was almost a novelty song.

It was Ledoux's ability to mix music and rodeo that made the man exceptional. Songs often link the subject, but the artists are usually folks who can do one but not the other. Not so LeDoux.

Take the bar-room humor on "Five Dollar Fine". Listen closely and you'll realize it's been copied time and time again, most successfully by Tracy Byrd. Byrd's hits with songs like "Drinkin' Bone", "Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo" and "Better Places Than This" owe their success to "Five Dollar Fine". But LeDoux's song sounds more real, probably because - while Byrd can sing it - you get the feeling LeDoux lived it!

On the album's best track, "Silence On The Line", LeDoux's vocals are barely treated and the song - written by Sterling Whipple - tells the tale of the singing ex Rodeo rider brilliantly.

"Stampede" - one of only three songs here which LeDoux himself wrote - is a cowboy story which, for me, outclasses the Country standard, "Riders In The Sky".

If any young Country singer wants to hear how you can be a tough cowboy and a tender Country singer, they should take a listen to him sing "Look At You Girl". This is the song for the slow dance just before the barman calls time!

He shows the same kind of tenderness on Bruce Springsteen's "Tougher Than The Rest". Truth is, he does it better than Springsteen did it.

That LeDoux can write is demonstrated again on "He Rides The Wild Horses". It's a superb example of the way his life mingled horses, rodeo, and music.

"This Cowboy's Hat" is a classic semi-spoken song. And because you just KNOW LeDoux had seen biker's poke fun at cowboy's in bars and coffee shops, the whole thing sounds authentic.

There is a measure of protest in "Workin’ Man’s Dollar". It's a protest - not about paying tax or supporting the armed forces - but about the way that the modern world rarely acknowledges the way ordinary working folks help pay for society's needs.

Jon Bon Jovi's "Bang A Drum" provides the closing track while LeDoux shows he can rock it up - "Life Is A Highway", "Honky Tonk World", "Cadillac Ranch", Joe Ely's "For Your Love" - and do Western Swing - "Under This Old Hat".

I confess I find LeDoux less appealing when he rocks it up. But I can see what the attraction is, and this is music to be played loud and hard in honky-tonks on Friday and Saturday nights! Right where LeDoux would feel at home, among friends.

Gob Bless you, Chris!

My View: A MUST HAVE for LeDoux fans. For others - A MUST HAVE too.

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