"This is music education as it ought to be. Skip's presentations seamlessly combine musical demonstrations and incisive commentary on the social and historical significance of the music of the American West." - Theodore Levin , PhD, Professor of Ethnomusicology, Dartmouth College.

A fascinating trip up the Oregon Trail and down into a cow camp on the Brazos River of Texas. Fine old time period music by Skip and The Waddie Pals, Tom Carter, Angus Gorman, and Ron Kane; narrative by Olivia Woods; cowboy poetry by Mike Whitaker.

A former high school history and Spanish teacher, SKIP GORMAN has performed hundreds of LIVING HISTORY programs for elementary and secondary school students all over the US. He has a scholar's understanding of the Celtic, Spanish and African-American roots of this historic music of Westward Expansion, music which was filtered through Appalachia and the rural south and carried in the nineteenth century to the American West by resourceful emigrant pioneers.

Moreover, Skip has worked as a cowboy on several Wyoming ranches. His mission is in introducing students of all ages to the joys of learning American history through authentic old time ballads and one hundred percent acoustic music.

An award winner for sure!!!!

Hot old time bluegrass classics with master flatpicking guitarist Richard Starkey.


 Liner Notes  

MANDOLIN IN THE COW CAMP - (a  2 -cd set) ; nearly 80 gorgeous, lonesome and wild and woolly oldtime melodies from the Western Plains, Appalachia and the Old Country. With cover art by the renowned western artist - WILLIAM MATTHEWS

featuring:  
Skip Gorman with
Tom Carter
Hal Cannon
Angus Gorman
Sten Isachsen
Seth Austen

2-CD SET  $25.00

Soundtrack of Ken Burns' PBS documentary, Lewis & Clark: Journey of the Corps of Discovery: Traditional American folk melodies, Native American tunes...composed and performed by some of the world's finest musicians...

"...the acclaimed soundtrack from the Ken Burns documentary which had the second highest PBS rating since 'The Civil War.''" Dayton Duncan, Florentine Films

"An enchanting listening experience. From beginning to end, Skip proves himself a masterful interpreter of cowboy ballads as well as a superb instrumentalist on guitar, fiddle and mandolin. A much welcome change of pace from the world of formulated recording productions." - Bluegrass Unlimited.

"From beginning to end, Skip proves himself a masterful interpreter of cowboy ballads as well a superb instrumentalist... an enchanting listening experience and a much welcome change of pace from the world of formulated recording productions." - Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine

"Skip brings us another fine collection of old time cowboy tunes. We get a taste of Curly Fletcher's humor in 'Ridge Running Roan' and of Jack Thorpe's ability to tug at our heartstrings in 'Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister, Nell' and Gorman plays a mean fiddle." - Richard Slatta, Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

"For anyone who likes good old cowboy songs and lots of fiddling, this is an album to have. " - American Cowboy Magazine

"Fine listening with expert musicianship" - Western Horseman Magazine
"You'll fall in love all over again." -Cowboys & Indians Magazine

"Lonesome Prairie Love marks Gorman's second Western compact disk for Rounder and proves just as glorious as his first. The music has that indefinable quality called 'soul.'" - Art Menius, Bluegrass Unlimited

"Skip Gorman's plaintiff prairie style owes more to old-time string bands and bluegrass than to the jazzy chords of the big screen buckaroos... a high lonesome voice that sounds as old as the plains." - Acoustic Guitar Magazine

"Skip Gorman is almost too good to be true. [He] is blessed with an achingly pure tenor and the loveliest yodel this side of Don Walser." New Country Magazine

"Gorman is in the front ranks of traditional cowboy musicians... [His] approach recalls cowboy music's Celtic and old-timey roots from the days before the genre was co-opted by Hollywood. " - Sing Out Magazine

"He seems to have been born to be a cowboy singer. Gormans' singing is perfect for the music: a smooth, down home voice that can stand beside that of Carl T. Sprague or any other cowboy singer." -Dirty Linen Magazine.

"There is a powerful variety of cowboy music here. There are songs with roots in England; songs that predate the battle at the Alamo; nightherding songs; waltzes; love songs; homilies; sentimental classics. And Skip has written a few new tunes and a grand epic. These are songs with their chaps and boots on, sung and played by one of our very finest Cowboy singers." Jeff Davis , Cambridge, MA

"Brilliant tapestries of the Old West... a most learned understanding of the romantic West, playing fiddle, mandolin, and singing with great verve and skill, without any hedging, I'd unreservedly name this as one my favorite cds of 1994, an album I'd walk barefoot over hot ashes to obtain." Rock 'n Reel Magazine, England

"...Masterful and flat-out gorgeous... Gorman's voice is so real, so full of splintered sobs, soft gravel and high, whooping sustains... his yodeling is so fluid and easy that even the most ardent yodel foe is bound to sigh." Scott Alarik, Boston Globe

"There is a powerful variety of cowboy music here. There are songs with roots in England; songs that predate the battle at the Alamo; nightherding songs; waltzes; love songs; homilies; sentimental classics. And Skip has written a few new tunes and a grand epic. These are songs with their chaps and boots on, sung and played by one of our very finest Cowboy singers." Jeff Davis , Cambridge, MA

"Brilliant tapestries of the Old West... a most learned understanding of the romantic West, playing fiddle, mandolin, and singing with great verve and skill, without any hedging, I'd unreservedly name this as one my favorite cds of 1994, an album I'd walk barefoot over hot ashes to obtain." Rock 'n Reel Magazine, England

"...Masterful and flat-out gorgeous... Gorman's voice is so real, so full of splintered sobs, soft gravel and high, whooping sustains... his yodeling is so fluid and easy that even the most ardent yodel foe is bound to sigh." Scott Alarik, Boston Globe

RE-RELEASED: Skip's fiddle music from the early 1980's. Old New England fiddle music with a decided Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, Shetland and French-Canadian flavor.

"Skip's singing style is spare, lean and reminiscent of those working cowboys on the early 78s." -Richard K. Spotswood, Bluegrass Unlimited.

"A nice blend of vocals and instrumentals by Skip Gorman and Ron Kane played in a distinctive and skilled old-time manner." -Steve Davis, The Walnut Valley Occasional.