Red Steagall - Born to This Land (1993)

Superb album of contemporary cowboy songs, mostly originals, by a man best known for having discovered Reba McEntire. Red Steagall looks and lives the part of a Western sage, and his voice has a depth that gives the illusion that he was actually there for a lot of the stories he sings about (he also tells a story or two, with a modern sensibility to some old western themes). Born to This Land, produced by Steve Gibson is lean and unobtrusive, is filled with gorgeous acoustic guitar and mandolin sounds, and the entire record is a worthy successor to the best of Marty Robbins, Tex Ritter, or the Sons of the Pioneers. The booklet includes an explanation of certain 19th and early-20th century Western and cowboy jargon.