“Riders In The Sky” coming to the Rex

The name “Riders In The Sky” conjures up various images in people’s minds—everything from the 1940s Vaughn Monroe hit song to Saturday matinees with Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.

After February 11, “Riders In The Sky” will probably make a lot of local folks think of a delightful night at the Rex Theater in Thompson Falls.

The internationally famous singing cowboys known as “Riders In The Sky” will make their first appearance at the Rex on Thursday night, Feb. 11, for one show only at 7 p.m.  The concert is a benefit for the Cancer Network of Sanders County.  Tickets are being sold in advance, and all seats are reserved.

“Riders” is a quartet of the very best in cowboy music, showmanship, and musical talent.  Comprised of guitarist and lead vocalist “Ranger Doug, Idol of American Youth,”  singer/bassist  “Too Slim The Man of a Thousand Hats,” fiddler/yodeler  “Woody Paul, the King of the Cowboy Fiddlers,” and accordionist “Joey, the Cowpolka King,”  the group has racked up nearly 6,500 performances all over the world in the past 38 years.

It was an unlikely assemblage of talent back in Nashville in 1977 when the group formed.  Douglas B. Green (Ranger Doug) was an historian at the Country Music Hall of Fame.  An English major from the University of Michigan, he’d already authored books on the history of country music.  He was also a freelance writer and an accomplished bluegrass musician.

Like Ranger Doug, “Too Slim” Fred Labour also had roots at the University of Michigan and graduated with a degree in wildlife management before deciding  to follow his heart and play cowboy music.

“Woody Paul” Crisman graduated with a PhD in nuclear physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but chose to leave his academic career to play jazz and country fiddle.

The three original Riders performed their first gig at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Nashville for $75.  Since then, the band added Joey “The Cowpolka King” Miskulin on accordion.

“Riders” is the only exclusively Western music act to join the Grand Ole Opry; they became members in 1982. As a classic cowboy quartet, the trail has led them to heights they could have never predicted. “Riders” have chalked up close to 7,000 concert appearances in all 50 states and 10 countries.  Their cowboy charisma and comedic flair made them naturals for TV, and landed them their own weekly show on TNN, as well as a Saturday morning series on CBS. They have been guests on countless TV specials, documentaries and variety shows, and their animated likenesses have shared the screen with Daffy Duck on the Cartoon Network, and the Disney Channel’s Stanley

 In addition to penning award winning songs for their own albums, they wrote the score for Pixar Animation’s 2002 Academy Award-winning short “For the Birds.” But the animated character that history will most certainly link to “Riders In The Sky” is the loveable cowboy Woody, as Riders performed “Woody’s Round Up” in “Toy Story 2,” with the album of the same name garnering Riders their first Grammy Award in 2001 for “Best Musical Album for Children.” Two years later, Riders roped their second Grammy in the same category, for “Monsters Inc. - Scream Factory Favorites,” the companion CD to Pixar’s award winning movie. 

“Riders In The Sky” are in the Western Music Association’s Hall of Fame, the Country Music Foundation’s Walkway of Stars, and the Walk of Western Stars (in Newhall, CA near Melody Ranch Studios) along with Gene, Roy, John Wayne and other cowboy legends.  Riders have been the Western Music Association’s “Entertainers Of the Year” seven times, and won “Traditional Group of the Year” and “Traditional Album of the Year” multiple times. The Academy of Western Artists has named them “Western Music Group of the Year” twice in 5 years, and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum has bestowed Riders with their Wrangler Award statuette three times. It comes as no surprise then that Billboard magazine’s Jim Bessman counts them as one of “the most historically significant acts in the history of American music.”

The Feb. 11 “Riders In The Sky” performance at the Rex Theater is tailor made for those who like old-time cowboy music, yodeling and harmony, superbly packaged and delivered in a clean family show with plenty of sophisticated humor.

To purchase, call promoter Jan Manning at 827-6385.