Harmony Ranch Album

The Riders in the Sky included:

• Paul Woodrow Chrisman as Woody Paul, a dimwitted King of the Cowboy fiddlers known as the man with the "eight-gallon head and in a ten-gallon hat."
• Douglas Bruce Green as Ranger Doug Ranger Doug, the Idol of American Youth, a yodeling, old fashioned cowboy hero who plays the guitar.
• Fred LaBour as Too Slim, the mustachioed Too Slim, the comical Man of Many Hats who plays the bass fiddle.

Set on Harmony Ranch in the Tumbleweed Valley, their program combined live-action, puppets, cartoons, films and guest stars. The Riders popular catchphrase was "It may be the easy way, but it's not...the Cowboy way."

The talented trio of singer musicians originally met in the late 1970s at a Nashville softball field. Before their big break, each worked at all sorts of odd jobs. Ranger Doug who was a country-music historian with a Master's in literature from Vandervilt University sold freelanced stories and chopped wood; Too Slim who earned a wildlife management degree at University of Michigan was a Nashville songwriter, storyteller, and singer; and Woody Paul who had earned a doctorate in physics from MIT repaired Volkswagen engines.

However, their mutual love of the old cowboy tunes inspired by the cool, classic harmonies of the likes of the Sons of the Pioneers, soon fused them into the Riders in the Sky. The group's successful National Public Radio program "Riders Radio Theater" was the inspiration for their CBS children's television program and later RIDER'S RADIO THEATER: THE TELEVISION SHOW on the TNT Network.

External Links

• Riders in the Sky (IMDb)

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