Johnny Western (born October 28, 1934) is an American country singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and radio show host. He is a member of the Western Music Association Hall of Fame and the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame.
Johnny Western was born Johnny Westerlund in Two Harbors in Lake County in northeastern Minnesota but was primarily reared in Northfield in south central Minnesota. His father was an instructor and officer in several Civilian Conservation Corps camps, where Western spent some his earlier years. He also lived on Indian reservations along the Canada–United States border.When he was five years old, Western's parents took him to see the western film Guns and Guitars, which starred the actor/singer Gene Autry. The young boy decided he wanted to be a singing cowboy. At the age of twelve, he received a guitar. Within a year, he was performing professionally.
He made his first professional recordings in the summer of 1952 in the studio of WCAL Radio station of St. Olaf College of Northfield, Minnesota. The six songs which resulted from those sessions were released on three singles on the local J-O-C-O label. After having played a supporting role in an episode of "Have Gun, Will Travel", Western wrote "The Ballad of Paladin" as a musical
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"thank-you-card" to Richard Boone. This landed him a deal with Columbia Records.
Between August 1958 and May 1963, Western recorded seven singles and one album (Have Gun, Will Travel, released in May 1962) for Columbia, until he was dropped from their roster. He then signed a contract with the Philips label, but only one single resulted ("Light The Fuse" b/w "Tender Years").
Have Gun Will Travel included the haunting Stan Jones song "Cowpoke", which members of the Western Writers of America chose as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. The album was a mature work, redolent of Western lore. It also included
Western's third version of "The Ballad of Paladin", a fine and introspective performance of "The Lonely Man", the gallows ballad "Hannah Lee", "The Streets of Laredo", "The Searchers" and "The Last Roundup".
Western's third version of "The Ballad of Paladin", a fine and introspective performance of "The Lonely Man", the gallows ballad "Hannah Lee", "The Streets of Laredo", "The Searchers" and "The Last Roundup".
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| Johnny Horton, Johnny Cash & Johnny Western |
Western's third album was recorded September 17–20, 1984 at Jack Clement Studio in Nashville, with Art Sparer producing. It was released under the title Johnny Western Sings 20 Great Classics & Legends. Amongst others, it contained a new version of Western's own composition "The Gunfighter", featuring Harold Bradley on gut-string guitar, imitating the original "El Paso" sound, since Western had originally written that song with Marty Robbins in mind.His scarce recording output notwithstanding, Johnny Western remained a consistent performer for over sixty years and so his name was never lost on the general public.
In October 2013, Johnny Western announced that he would stop touring and giving concerts.
(Info from Wikipedia)