Wylie & the Wild West - Hooves of the Horses

There's a whole lot to be said for authenticity. Wylie Gustafson has that in spades. This real-life, honest-to-Gosh cowboy hails from the Big Sky Country and delivers Western music straight from the hip, with no pretense and no frills.

These days cowboy singers can and do come from everywhere. Still, it's nice to run across one that's native to the American West, in fact, a place where there's still more open space than people -- Montana. Wylie Gustafson and his Wild West hail from those open spaces, and unlike many other western singers, when the sun comes up, he's outside feeding this cattle and taking care of his horses. That truth comes across in his obvious love for the music he's making.

With songs such as "Equus Caballus," "Out Here," and "Mmm... Montana," Gustafson pays a humble tribute to the land he loves and that all-important worker of the plains, the horse. In fact, the liner notes are decorated with pictures of the horses he loves rather than his own face. He writes a number of his own songs, including the amusing Spanglish song "Manolito," which uses lines like "Manolito el caballo bonito, el gato at cuttin' the cattle/ Barely stands 14 hands, but he sabe the business bueno." He also includes a few covers, including Buddy Holly's "Everyday" and Johnny Cash's "Luther Played The Boogie," which sounds surprisingly cool sung with Gustafson's high tenor.

Of course, there is some very cool yodeling. Absolutely can't do without that.