The Horse Whisperer

Most soundtracks are just a hotch-potch of songs by artists who are only on the album because they happen to be hip at the time when the film is made.

This album works on its own terms as a great collection of country music by a range of major artists.

Also, unlike most soundtracks or compilations, the songs sound as though they were all recorded specially for this project, which creates the kind of consistency of mood that you would expect on a normal album, except that you've got 12 different artists to choose from.

The songs by Emmylou Harris, Alsion Moorer, Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle are the standout tracks for me - poignant, authentic and evocative, and with great singing and musicianship.

Even if you haven't seen the film, this is a good starting point for anyone interested in getting into country music. If you like the songs on this record, any of these artists would be worth exploring further. Emmylou Harris and George Strait are country superstars in their own right.


GREAT Romantic with Great Music   June 25, 2004
Alper Keser (Istanbul, Turkey)
6 out of 8 found this review helpful

Redford have made a fantastic film with great musics. Especially the music when he was dancing with leadrole woman, it is such a romantic moments. Also other musics takes you to the mountain, fields and the romantic feelings that you have forgotten already.
Thanks!


An excellent collection of western music   February 8, 2003
Peter Durward Harris (Leicester England)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

This stunning collection of songs is not a soundtrack score (that is available separately) but it does include songs that were used in the movie, together with other songs of a similar type.

The album is book-ended by two cowboy classics - Dwight Yoakam singing Cattle call and George Strait singing Red river valley. Both of these men are well suited to these songs and their covers are among the best I've heard. There are new recordings of three other oldies here - Big Ball's in Cowtown (Don Walser), Cowboy love song (Don Edwards) and Whispering pines (Iris DeMent). All of these are brilliant, especially Whispering pines. It is a pity that Iris only seems to record songs for multi-artist projects these days - a new album of her own would be much appreciated.

The other songs were all new at the time. Of these, the standout is A soft place to fall, by Allison Moorer. Allison is the sister of Shelby Lynne and her contribution to the soundtrack marked her recording debut. It gave her vital exposure. The song appeared on her first full-length album. Allison, like Shelby, has her own ideas about what sort of material she wants to record, so while her first three albums have been of an extremely high quality, she has not emerged as the major star that record company executives were hoping she would become.

Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, The Flatlanders and The Mavericks all put in great performances on their songs, some of which are not available on any of their own albums.

This is an excellent album which helped to re-awaken interest in western music, deservedly so.