Line #11 Music/RidersInTheSky


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/riders_in_the_sky2.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: Joey The Cow-Polka King, Woody Paul, Too Slim, & Ranger Doug.]]
3	Riders in the Sky is a Grammy award winning country/western band that first began performing on November 11th, 1977. The band consist of Ranger Doug (Douglas B. Green) on rhythm guitar, Woody Paul (Paul W. Chrisman) on fiddle, Too Slim (Fred [=LaBour=]) on bass, and Joey The Cow-Polka King (Joey Miskulin) on accordion. Over the course of their long and semi-illustrious career, they've released 35 albums over the course of 40 years, hosted and starred in numerous television shows and specials, including the TNN series ''Series/TumbleweedTheater'' for three seasons, their own CBS children's show in 1991, and created the National Public Radio series Radio/RidersRadioTheater which ran for 15+ years, but they are perhaps best known for singing "Woody's Round-Up" in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2''.
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6	!!Associated Tropes:
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8	* AbridgedForChildren: The raunchy show they performed live at bars was seriously toned down when they realized that parents were bringing their children to the shows.
9	* AgeProgressionSong: [[https://youtu.be/EVZ8zxUZPzM "Cowboy Song"]] follows the life of a cowboy from before his birth, as a young man, and eventually to him as an old man watching cities being built "where the long-horn cow once grazed".
10	* AudienceParticipationSong: In live concerts, the Riders invite children to come onstage and sing "I'm Going to Leave Old Texas Now".
11	* Main/BandToon (Live-Action): Riders in the Sky are the stars of the 1991 children's show ''Riders in the Sky''.
12	* BalladOfX: [[https://youtu.be/k_lIEmMgC8s "The Ballad of Palindrome"]], a parody of "The Ballad of Paladin". They also did a cover of [[Series/DavyCrockett "The Ballad of Davy Crockett"]].
13	* BizarreInstrument: Too Slim plays [[https://youtu.be/09mIiKdEX38 his face/cheeks]]. He often refers to it as "the world's second oldest instrument". On their major label debut ''The Cowboy Way'', when the audience cheered this enthusastically, Slim quipped "My kinda crowd! Starved for entertainment!"
14	* ConceptAlbum: Their 1989 album ''Riders Go Commercial'' is based around the idea that one day there will be commercials on "records, tapes, and [=CDs=]", with half of the album consisting of parody commercials for fictional products and the other half with actual music.
15	* CoverAlbum: ''Public Cowboy #1: The Music of Music/GeneAutry'' is the only Riders album that is 100% covers.
16	* CoverVersion: Being a cowboy band means you have to cover the classic cowboy songs, such as [[https://youtu.be/FRc7KTAuoOc "Back in the Saddle Again"]], [[https://youtu.be/yK5_szE98AY "Cool Water"]], [[https://youtu.be/nofbteWzXJU "Tumbling Tumbleweeds"]]", and [[https://youtu.be/WZ_uIcMCXx4 "Home on the Range"]]. Most of their albums are 50% covers and 50% original songs.
17	* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler: The cattle rancher-turned outlaw (AKA the narrator)]] in [[https://youtu.be/jz_2GWHTRys "Desperado Trail"]].
18	* DarkerAndEdgier: Early in their career, the Riders [[http://www.ridersinthesky.com/sites/ridersinthesky.bombplates.com/files/44_-_early_promo_with_gun.jpg wore black hats, dark clothing, carried guns, and had a "grim" look overall]]. This was the late 1970s, where [[Music/WillieNelson the]] [[Music/WaylonJennings "Outlaw"]] [[Music/MerleHaggard cowboys]] were big sellers. By the mid-1980s, the Riders became much more colorful in their clothing and ditched the guns all together.
19	* FakeRadioShowAlbum: 1988's ''Riders Radio Theater'' album is done in the style of such classic radio shows as ''Gene Autry's Melody Ranch'' and ''The Lone Ranger''.
20	* Main/FunWithPalindromes: [[https://youtu.be/k_lIEmMgC8s "The Ballad of Palindrome"]] is about a fictional television show featuring the adventures of [[Main/EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep a man named Palindrome]] who has the ability to speak only in palindromes.
21	* GreatestHitsAlbum: ''Best of The West'' (1987), ''Best of The West Rides Again'' (1990), ''Saturday Morning with Riders in the Sky'' (1992), ''Cowboy Songs'' (1996), ''Yodel the Cowboy Way'' (1998), and ''America’s Favorite Cowboy Songs'' (2012).
22	* GroinAttack: The unnamed subject of "That's How the Yodel Was Born".
23	-->''The bronco came up, and the cowboy came down\
24	They met at the old saddlehorn\
25	It made a deep impression, you could say it changed his life\
26	And that's how the yodel was born.''
27	* HiddenDepths:
28	** Ranger Doug is a classic cowboy hero type. Douglas Green has a Master's Degree in Literature and is a renowned musical historian.
29	** Too Slim is the jokester of the trio, always quick to toss off a quip or sarcastic comment. Fred [=LaBour=] not only has a Master's Degree in Wildlife Management, he co-authored a satirical article for his university newspaper which is considered the biggst contributor to the 1970s rumor that Music/TheBeatles Paul [=McCartney=] had died and secretly been replaced by a lookalike.
30	** Woody Paul's onstage persona is pretty much a generic goofball. But Paul Chrisman actually has a Ph.D in ''theoretical plasma physics'' from MIT, for his thesis "Inertial, Viscous, and Finite-Beta Effects in a Resistive, Time Dependent Tokamak Discharge".
31	** Joey the Cow-Polka King plays perhaps the least accessible instrument. But he's been a professional recording artist for ''over 60 years'', and is a successful record producer.
32	* IconicSongRequest: "Let's do our most requested song: "[[https://youtu.be/98SWVg8jGn4 That's How The Yodel Was Born]]"." - Ranger Doug at every live performance since 1979.
33	* IncrediblyLongNote: The grand finale of "[[https://youtu.be/xZCliTkppw4?t=1m24s That's How the Yodel Was Born]]" has two.
34	* Main/InkSuitActor: The Riders appeared as themselves alongside Daffy Duck in the ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'' animated series. They also appeared as themselves in [[WesternAnimation/{{Stanley}} Stanley's Dinosaur Round-Up]].
35	* LethalChef: [=LaBour=]'s alternate character, Sidemeat, serves as the cook at the Riders' (fictional) ranch and is implied to be this, with Woody Paul once insulting "those lead-lined hockey pucks you call 'biscuits'."
36	* LiveAlbum: ''Riders In The Sky Live!'' (1983), ''The Cowboy Way'' (1987), ''Lassoed Live at the Schermerhorn with the Nashville Symphony'' (2009), and parts of ''Silver Jubilee'' (2003).
37	* LocationSong: [[https://youtu.be/03ZM_HDX3OM "Nevada"]], [[https://youtu.be/Zp1_aFn1Afo "Old El Paso"]], and [[https://youtu.be/WS9CJYE4aic "Blue Montana Skies"]] are just a few examples of songs inspired by a certain location the Riders have performed.
38	* LongRunnerLineUp: They were a trio from 1978 to 1992 or '93, when Joey became an official member of the band, and have been a quartet ever since.
39	* ParentalLoveSong: [[https://youtu.be/yiQPDVwCrhI "Pretty Prairie Princess"]], written by Woody Paul shortly after his daughter was born.
40	* PolkaDork: Joey The Cow-Polka King.
41	* RecordProducer: Joey Miskulin not only plays for Riders In The Sky, but produces their albums as well.
42	* RunningGag: Several times during each concert, Woody or Slim will talk about something, then Doug will gently reprimand them by saying "You fellers know that would be the ''easy'' way. But it wouldn't be ''the cowboy way''."
43	* TitledAfterTheSong: ''Ghost Riders In The Sky'', although they are actually named after the album ''Riders In The Sky'' by The Sons of The Pioneers (which itself is named after the song).
44	* TitleTrack: ''Three on the Trail'', ''Cowboy Jubilee'', ''Prairie Serenade'', ''Harmony Ranch'', and ''Always Drink Upstream from the Herd'' are all albums named after songs appearing on said albums.
45	* Main/SesameStreetCred: The Riders appeared as themselves on a cowboy-themed episode of Series/BarneyAndFriends.
46	* SidekickSong: The Riders' faithful sidekick and chuckwagon cook Sidemeat occasionally gets to sing a song on the albums, such as [[https://youtu.be/J8YrKD-82fw "Sidekick Heaven"]] and [[https://youtu.be/ympIfEY8rPc "Biscuit Blues"]]
47	* TheSomethingSong: "Cowboy Song" written by Woody Paul.
48	* TheStoner: Woody Paul (formerly). A famous story involves the Riders performing at Ronald Reagan's inaugural ball in 1981 and Woody Paul trying to sneak his weed past the Secret Service.
49	* TrainSong: [[https://youtu.be/GtohNZV9tcw "Here Comes the Santa Fe"]].
50	* SelfTitledAlbum: ''Riders in the Sky'' in the early 80s. It was later rereleased as ''Weeds and Water'' in 1983.
51	* SingerSongwriter: All of the band members have written songs and performed said-songs on their albums.
52	* StageNames: All of the members use stage names.
53	* VillainSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfwFanO6rkQ "Someone's Got to Do It"]] from ''Horse Opera''.

Context Music / RidersInTheSky