All My Friends Are Cowboys [VHS]

All My Friends Are Cowboys [VHS] Review

“All My Friends Are Cowboys,” produced by Crabbapple Music Corporation, has aired on PBS as a fundraising special.

“Cowboys” stars Wilford Brimley, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Joe Diffie, Don Edwards, Ty England, Waddie Mitchell and Kristen Zang, with the late Roy Rogers and many other celebrities.

The story and characters are portrayed primarily through the cast’s remarkable performance of 13 original, richly acoustic, cowboy songs. Composed by writer/producer Kelly Crabb, a Los Angeles entertainment attorney who prefers to identify with his Butch Cassidy-shared Utah roots, the captivating music poignantly depicts the story’s complex, humorous and usually conflicting emotions, while reflecting the simplicity of the musical roots it honors.

The story revolves around the evening campfire banter of three working cowboys: Charlie, the chuck wagon philosopher (Wilford Brimley); Mike, an injury-finished bronc rider (Joe Diffie); and Bill, a young moonstruck cowboy (Ty England) struggling with the love of Jenny, a rich man’s daughter (Kristen Zang), and a tenuous link between the rancher’s life of his dad (Don Edwards) and mainstream society.

The story is enhanced by the wisdom, humor and art of cowboy lore through the ages, guided by a friendly, but enigmatic, cowboy Host/Narrator (Waddie Mitchell). Along the way, we meet legends, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and the late Roy Rogers.

Montage imagery, the music, poetry and other elements bring the stories to life, vividly portraying the cowboy’s reality; the vast, harsh yet seductive western panorama; sun, dust, wind, rain, quiet and solitude punctuated with moments of foreboding; the rodeo cowboy; Hollywood’s cowboy; Nashville’s cowboy; history’s cowboy.

Magnificent locations, dramatic and musical performances by artists of three generations, visits with heroes, legend and lore give universal and enduring appeal to this celebration of America’s most cherished cultural icon.