Recordings & Reviews

 
The Emigrant Trail

Produced by Harry Orlove and Bob Rice
Mixed and mastered by Bob Rice for NGP Prod.
Recorded at Masterpeace Prod., Torrance, Calif.
Engineers: Warren Paine and Warren Tarbell
Additional Recording:
Instrumental overdubs recorded by Harry Orlove
Cowboy Celtic recorded at Rocky Mountain Recording, Calgary, Alberta
     (Produced by David Wilkie, engineered by Rob Smith)
Executive Producers- Maggie Kritzer and Larry Biehl
Art Direction & Design- Jeff Lancaster for LCG
Photos- Back cover and Tray- Dave Cibley
Cover and Disc- R. D.

Musicians
Harry Orlove- 6 & 12 string, high strung & baritone guitarrs,
     banjo (4) whistle (1) solos (2)
Dave Hall- bass, vocals (4)
Richard Paine- drums, vocals (4)
Mike Fried- dobro (2,3,8,11)
Gabe Witcher- fiddle (2,3,8,9)
Pat Cloud- banjo (11)
David Jackson- accordion (4,5,9)
Bob Rice- mandolin (10,11) guitar (10)
Warren Tarbell- vocals (4)
Ray Doyle- vocals, acoustic guitar
Cowboy Celtic Calgary Crew- (1,6,7,11)
    David Wilkie- mandolin, manola, mandocello
    Keri Zwicker- harp
    Tami Cooper- flute
    Joe Hertz- fiddle
    Nathan McCavana- bodhran

Faint praise for The Emigrant Trail:
CowboyPoetry.com

   Top musician, singer, and songwriter Ray Doyle's recent CD, The Emigrant Trail, is reviewed in the November, 2011 Western Horseman magazine. Senior Editor Jennifer Denison writes, "...he stands out as an Irish troubadour and folk musician rooted in the cowboy culture of the West." Find a link to an impressive video of the title song at Ray Doyle's web site, www.RayDoyle.net. Ray appears at events across the West, including recent and forthcoming appearances at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, Spirit of the West Cowboy Gathering, and Saddle Up! at Pigeon Forge.

Rick Huff, Rick Huff's Best of the West Reviews:

    Before hearing it I made an assumption about this album that couldn't have been further off. Emigrants? Irish? Cowboy Celtic's on hand for the recording? The Western Folklife Center's Yellowstone Song Contest winner "The Jewel" is here, and it's a calming poetic portrait. I figured sweet Western visions and thoughts of the Irish homeland. Wrong. This thing has teeth!

    Disarmingly pleasant in its musical presentation, the words sneak up and chew on your conscience! Ray Doyle is a longtime player with Wylie & The Wild West, but here he takes his distinctive vocal delivery and goes off in directions Wylie never took, tackling a rough Western reality that is both dream and nightmare for many.  He draws on the experiences of more than just the Irish as shown in Dave Stamey's "Vaquero Song," "The Cowboy Life" (also called "The Dreary Life") and Gordon Lightfoot's "Canadian Railroad Trilogy."

    The title track sets things in motion, with the singer heading out "for a brand new beginning or a desperate end" on a sea that's "a churning, black, bottomless well 'mid the moaning and screaming..."  And yet still "there's hope at the end of the emigrant trail" unless you're caught digging the Erie Canal. There "The Jigger Boss" keeps men whiskeyed-up so they'll shun the cholera-causing water.  The dancing lyrics that bounce by include "every thirty feet we go, we plant three men six feet below, all down the Mohawk Valley!"  For me, the big stunner is "Mick Ryan's Lament," a Robert Emmett Dunlap song done to a dirge-like "Garryowen" about a ghostly Irish soldier's horror at what he did under Custer. Ray Doyle's The Emigrant Trail is a courageous, diverse statement and an outstanding achievement. All concerned should be commended.

Jeri Dobrowski, Cowboy Jam Session:

    A recent arrival in my mailbox that I’m delighted to recommend is Ray Doyle’s The Emigrant Trail: a Journey West. The Dublin-born Doyle is familiar to fans of Wylie & The Wild West as Wylie’s longtime band leader. That alone says a lot, but Ray is a class act in his own right. This CD makes that point perfectly clear.

    In liner notes, Doyle recounts his family’s journey aboard "an overcrowded ship for a turbulent nine-day voyage from Ireland." Eventually, they settled near the Hollywood Hills in California. While not biographical, the 11 tracks successfully condense the immigrant experience that is America, spanning both the continent and the centuries.

    Doyle did a masterful job of selecting and choreographing the songs, which are a mixture of original compositions and traditional tunes, plus Jimmy Driftwood’s "Tennessee Stud," Gordon Lightfoot’s "Canadian Railroad Trilogy," and "The Vaquero Song" by Dave Stamey. From the gut-wretching title track to the lovely guitar instrumental "Rosalba," from Doyle’s award-winning Yellowstone National Park tribute, "The Jewel," to a mournful 7th Cavalry ballad set to a leisurely-paced "Garryowen," it’s a grand journey.

    The tempo changes from track to track are smooth and effortless; the subject matter interesting and refreshing. A surprisingly educational "The Jigger Boss" is a fine example of the latter. And, yes, that’s Cowboy Celtic you hear on Doyle’s arrangement of "The Water is Wide" and several others.

   
CowboyPoetry.com:

    An outstanding and original production, The Emigrant Trail, from Ray Doyle (of Wylie & the Wild West) is a rich listening experience. A perfect blend of the old and new in its writing and selections, it carries the sense of history, heritage, and adventure that is the story of many of the West's Irish and Scottish (and other) immigrants—and the greater story of America itself. 

    As a child, Ray and his family left Dublin for Canada, and later settled in California, with the help of a Mexican-American family. A love of the American West has always been a part of Ray Doyle's life. He tells in the liner notes, "My journey began even before my family boarded an over-crowded ship for a turbulent, nine day voyage from Ireland. American movies brought the world of cowboys across the Atlantic, and my friends and I rode our imaginary horses in what we called 'The California Hills' near my home in Dublin..."

    The carefully selected songs and thoughtful production reflect a clear and vast vision of the West. Widely known for his dazzling guitar work, The Emigrant Trail showcases Ray Doyle's equally-strong writing talents. He gives a warm, true voice to his original songs and to classics such as "The Cowboy Life," "The Tennessee Stud," Dave Stamey's "The Vaquero Song," and Gordon Lightfoot's "Canadian Railroad Trilogy." His own creations stand up to those pieces, starting with the impressive, complex title track and continuing to the "gem" of "The Jewel," a song that took one of the top places in the recent Western Folklife Center's Yellowstone song writing competition. Sparkling instrumental performances—many by the incomparable Cowboy Celtic—infuse the entire production with fine and uncommon quality.

    Ray Doyle's songs appear on U.S., Canadian, Australian, and European albums, and his band, "Reach for the Sky" is included on the important A Town South of Bakersfield album. His previously-mentioned song, "The Jewel," appears on the Western Folklife Center's Deep West Records' Songs from Yellowstone and the Tetons.

    The Emigrant Trail was over a year in the making, and the entire project shows how that time was well spent on care and precision in production: the top-notch, original writing; the thoughtful selection of pieces; the superior musicians; the artful arrangement of songs; the intelligent liner notes; and the elegant package design. Perhaps what recommends it most is that it is not a one-time listen, but rather one of those rare albums for a listener to savor, many times over.

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Selected Discography:

  Reach for the Sky(2000) is Ray Doyle's previous solo release.

  A Town South of Bakersfield(1988) includes Ray Doyle ("Same Old Fool"), Katy Moffatt, Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, and others.

 Songs from Yellowstone and the Tetons(2008) Presented by The Western Folklife Center, this record includes "The Jewel," by Ray Doyle (Gold Award winner in the songwriting contest) and additional songs. Other artists include Lyle Lovett, Jon Chandler, Skip Gorman, Connie Dover, Chuck Pyle, and others.

  Yellowstone Treasures(2009) Lyrics from a portion "The Jewel" are included in the 3rd edition of Janet Chapple's wonderful book. 

With Wylie and the Wild West:

Wylie and the Wild West Show (1992)
Get Wild (1994)
Glory Trail: Cowboy and Traditional Gospel Songs (1996)
Cattle Call: Songs of the Wild West (1997)
Way Out West (1997)
Ridin' the Hi-Line (2000)
Paradise (2001)
Hooves of the Horses (2004)
Cowboy Ballads & Dance Songs (2004)
Live! At the Tractor (2005)
Bucking Horse Moon (2007)
Unwired (2009)