THE HIGWAYMEN - RIDERS IN THE SKY

RIDERS IN THE SKY

THE HIGWAYMEN

WHERE: AMERICAN OUTLAWS: LIVE AT NASSAU COLISEUM, 1990

SONGWRITER: STANLEY JONES

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: AMERICAN OUTLAWS

LABEL: LEGACY RECORDINGS

GENRE: COUNTRY

YEAR: 2016

 

     The Highwaymen were an American country music supergroup, composed of four of country music's biggest artists who pioneered the outlaw country subgenre: Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. Between 1985 and 1995, the group recorded three major label albums as The Highwaymen: two on Columbia Records and one for Liberty Records. Their Columbia works produced three chart singles, including the number one "Highwayman" in 1985.

     Between 1996 and 1999, Nelson, Kristofferson, Cash, and Jennings provided the voice and dramatization for the Louis L'Amour Collection, a four-CD box set of seven Louis L'Amour stories published by the HighBridge Company, although the four were not credited as "The Highwaymen" in this work.

     Besides the four formal members of the group, one other vocal artist appeared on a Highwaymen recording: Johnny Rodriguez, who provided Spanish vocal on "Deportee", a Woody Guthrie composition, from the album Highwayman.

     The four starred in one movie together: the 1986 film Stagecoach.

      In 1990, the original members of the 1950s-'60s folk group of the same name sued The Highwaymen over their use of the name, which was inspired by a Jimmy Webb ballad the country stars had recorded. The suit was dropped when all parties agreed that the folk group owned the name but that the earlier group would grant a nonexclusive, nontransferable license to the supergroup to use the name. The two groups then shared the stage at a 1990 concert in Hollywood. 

Well, an old cowboy went riding out one dark and windy day

Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way

When all at once a mighty herd of red eyed cows he saw

Plowing through the ragged sky

And up the cloudy draw

 

Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel

Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel

A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky

He saw the riders coming hard

And he heard their mournful cry

 

Yippie-yi-ay (yippie-yi-ay)

Yippie-yi-yay (yippie-yi-yay)

Ghost riders in the sky

 

Their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred, their shirts all soaked with sweat

He's riding hard to catch that herd, but he ain't caught 'em yet

'Cause they've got to ride forever on that range up in the sky

On horses snorting fire

As they ride on hear their cry

 

As the riders passed on by him he heard one call his name (Merle Haggard)

If you want to save your soul from hell a-riding on our range

Then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride

Trying to catch the devil's herd

Across these endless skies

 

Yippie-yi-ay (yippie-yi-ay)

Yippie-yi-yay (yippie-yi-yay)

You lost a "yippie" there

Ghost riders in the sky

Ghost riders in the sky.