About This Website
Several years ago, the Western Writers of America surveyed its membership to choose the Top 100 Western Songs of all time. The list was presented at the WWA’s Annual Convention in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The list was reprinted on the website of American Cowboy magazine, where I happened to see it in July, 2014.
The list looked interesting, so I spent the Fourth of July weekend searching for the songs, their lyrics, and something about their history. Some of the songs were hard to find, and a couple seemed to be duplicates, but overall, I was successful in tracking everything down. The material on these pages is the result of that work and well over a hundred hours more.
You can use the site to see YouTube versions of every one of the songs , along with carefully-transcribed copies of the lyrics as sung by the artist in the YouTube.
As you listen to a song, you can also access Wikipedia articles about the artist, the composer, and the song itself. In most cases there is a second YouTube version of the song. Most of the YouTubes are of popular and/or classic versions of the songs.
I seek the blessing and cooperation of writers, publishers, artists, and anyone else who can help to take this project further. (Maybe the list needs to be given further publicity, and maybe refined and/or updated in some way.)
I don't intend to violate any copyrights or to get anyone upset. I just want to make this material available to as many people as possible. It is an easy way to access some good stuff that is already out there on the Internet. If you have a problem with anything that you see here, please let me know.
Skip Skipson
Littleton, Colorado
412-367-1376
Website Copyright 2020 Skip Skipson. All rights reserved. Copyright of all songs, lyrics, images, performances, etc. presented or linked to here remains with the owners of that material. This compilation is intended only for commentary, research, teaching, and scholarship. Other uses are strictly prohibited.
 
More about This Website
The Tablet version is optimized for the Kindle Fire HD 6. It has been regularly tested there and on an original iPad. The Large-Screen version is optimized for a PC. The main difference is that the Tablet version fits nicely on a small handheld screen.
The site's colors, layout, design, etc. are all subject to change and improvement. Suggestions are welcome.
I modified/corrected about half of the song names on the original list in American Cowboy, to make them conform with the titles on albums and CDs. Most of the changes were minor.
Occasionally there were two or more songs with the same or similar names; I tried to choose the one most likely to have been voted on.
The videos linked to here were all accessible as of late December, 2014, but YouTube content can change dramatically over time. If you find any dead links or videos that have been removed, just search YouTube for the name of the song — you will probably find several versions. You can do us all a favor by informing me of videos that are no longer available.
The lyrics of songs, especially old ones, are subject to great variation. Those provided here were carefully transcribed from the videos linked to from this page. To avoid inconsistencies, almost all punctuation was removed. If you find any errors in the lyrics, please send email.
Most of the links about songs, composers, and performers go to Wikipedia articles. Let me know if any of them need to be improved. I am an experienced Wikipedia editor, so I can change existing articles or create new ones as necessary.
Website Copyright 2020 Skip Skipson. All rights reserved. Copyright of all songs, lyrics, images, performances, etc. presented or linked to here remains with the owners of that material. This compilation is intended only for commentary, research, teaching, and scholarship. Other uses are strictly prohibited.