Few tales bear such frequent retelling as the settling of the west, and Red Steagall has added his own handsome version to the treasure trove of stories with Wagon Tracks.
Taking on the persona of a young Irishman who leaves the security of home for opportunity and adventure, Steagall pushes through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, stakes and then abandons a claim in Texas, joins a cattle drive to the lush summer range of the Yellowstone River, homesteads awhile in Nebraska, and then wanders the Oregon Trail out to his final home in the Columbia Valley.
The song cycle’s final track, “My America”, swells with pride in the country he’s traveled and brims with optimism that even today its inherent greatness will, as it always has, overcome setbacks. Steagall, who wrote or co-wrote most of the tunes, anchors the sweep of his story in the everyday rhythms of settlers’ lives, and heeds their dreams and fears as closely as he observes the plains and big skies around them.
With Rich O’Brien on guitar and mandolin, and Reggie Rueffer playing some of the sweetest fiddle this side of the Atlantic, Steagall frames his tale in the open-air tradition of acoustic western music.
