Calexico and Iron & Wine first made an artistic connection with In the Reins, the 2005 EP that brought Sam Beam, Joey Burns and John Convertino together. The acclaimed collaboration introduced both acts to wider audiences and broadened Beam’s artistic horizons, but it was the shared experience of touring together in the tradition of Bob Dylan’s “Rolling Thunder Revue” that cemented their bond. Their metaphorical roads diverged in the years that followed, but they kept in touch and cross-pollinated where they could. But although they often talked about rekindling their collaboration in the studio and on the stage, it wasn’t until last year that their schedules aligned.
The single most influential album of Western songs in post-World War II American music, Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs touched a whole range of unexpected bases in its own time and has endured extraordinarily well across the ensuing four decades. The longevity of the album's appeal is a result of Marty Robbins' love of the repertory at hand and the mix of his youthful dynamism and prodigious talent that he brought to the recordings, and the use of the best music production techniques of the era. Add to that the presence of a pair of killer original songs that were ready-made singles, "El Paso" and "Big Iron," and a third, "The Master's Call," that was startlingly personal, and the results are well-nigh irresistible.
Although he lived most of his life in Nashville, Marty never left the west behind. He proved that he could masterfully reinterpret classic western ballads, as well as write new ones every bit as good as the old ones. His western recordings for both Columbia and MCA are complete here, spanning the years 1958-1979. The set starts with The Hanging Tree, then encompasses the best-selling Gunfighter Ballads albums that included such classic tracks as El Paso, Big Iron, Tonight Carmen, Mister Shorty, and The Cowboy In The Continental Suit, as well as the El Paso sequels like Feleena From El Paso and El Paso City. Marty mixed self-composed epics with many of the greatest vintage western songs to create a tapestry of music that powerfully evokes the old west and the west in transition.