Katy Moffatt – Cowboy Girl

Katy Moffatt was supposed to be a big country star. Back in the early days of country rock, she recorded two albums for Columbia (her 1976 debut was produced by the legendary Billy Sherrill). Despite good reviews, Moffatt was considered too eclectic for the mainstream, and Columbia dropped her. Since then, she’s carved out a career singing country, folk and blues in her powerfully expressive voice and has recorded for several labels.

Cowboy Girl, her thirteenth album, has its moments, but a few tunes are so lightweight that a good strong wind could send them straight across the prairie like tumbleweeds. The standout tracks are Norman Blake’s “Ol’ Bill Miner (The Gentleman Bandit)”, about a lifelong professional train robber; Joe Ely’s “Indian Cowboy”, the saga of an Indian who sacrifices his life to prevent a circus fire, and Tom Russell1s “Hallie Lonigan”, the tale of a tough single mother who raises her two children alone “out on the western plain.” They’re perfect little stories, with strong characters and rich settings, and Moffatt tells them well.

But did we really need another version of “The Wayward Wind”, the trite 1950s pop hit? Similarly, “When I Was a Cowboy” presents a cartoonish version of the cowboy life, complete with an annoying refrain that goes “Come-a cow-cow-yicky, come-a cow-cow-yicky-yicky yay”. It’s songs like these that give western music a bad name.