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Blazing the Wast Tablature Transcription Book for Banjo

Easy to read tablature with tips on learning the songs, backup tips, notes on each song, and some photos. Country Music Television voted Blazing the West as one of the top ten albums of 2003 The International Bluegrass Music Association named Blazing the West one of the top 15 instrumental CD’s of 2003

Songs included are: El Cumbanchero, San Antonio Rose, Garcia, Panhandle Rag, Ghost Riders in the Sky, Texas Blues, Red River Valley, Lonesome Cowboy, Jesse James, Don't Fence Me In, Standing Eagle, and Streets of Laredo. Featuring Banjo Player Ross Nickerson with special guests: RIDERS IN THE SKY, TIM O'BRIEN, DAROL ANGER, BUTCH BALDASSARI, MIKE BUB, JASON CARTER,JOE CRAVEN,DAVID GRIER, ROB ICKES, LAURIE LEWIS, PETER MCLAUGHLIN, TOM ROZUM

BANJO NEWSLETTER; "Nickerson's playing is tasteful, so carefully arranged, so very very thoughtful and complex".

BLUEGRASS NOW; A succesful merge that should encourage others to explore Bluegrass in the Cowboy way or should I say Cowboy music in the Bluegrass way".

TUCSON CITIZEN; No matter what mood or genre Nickerson has the chops to pull it off with brilliance and taste, and the sidemen to compliment every match and turn".

BLUEGRASS UNLIMITED; "Ross Nickerson deserves a lot of credit for coming up with tasteful, appropriate, and interesting banjo versions for such a wide variety of tunes, on some very challenging material".

.....I've been listening all week to the "Blazing the West" CD and am absolutely thrilled with it. Beyond banjo, beyond bluegrass, western music, or cowboy music as I prefer to call it, is my favorite music. Having the chance to listen to both cowboy music AND banjo is just delightful. I hope it will do very well for you and that you'll be encouraged to do a volume II. 8-) Thanks again and best wishes, Brenda Jackson

Recent Review in Sing Out Magazine

Joining Nickerson is an all-star cast, too numerous to mention in full, but which includes the Riders in the Sky, Jason Carter and Mike Bub (both from Del McCoury's Band), Laurie Lewis, Peter McLaughlin, Tim O'Brien and Blue Highway's Dobro wizard, Rob Ickes. Nickerson's playing is clean and powerful, with a lot of drive, but he can jazz things up as well, and it's especially on the cuts where he and Ickes square off that Blazing the West works best. The version here of Leon McAuliffe's "Panhandle Rag" is worth the cost of the disc by itself--the only thing missing is Bob Wills throwing in an "Ah-hahhh" or two. Banjo instrumental albums can be (and often are) tedious.