Performer Information

Hank Snow grew up on Canada's East coast, but he always wanted to be a singing cowboy. He was a fan of The Sons of the Pioneers, listening to Karl Farr as he developed his own guitar technique, and he eventually called himself "The Singing Ranger" (earlier, he had been called "The Yodelling Ranger"). Snow named his band "The Rainbow Ranch Boys," bought a horse and ranch and dressed in Western clothes for his performances. In the early 1960s, he recorded a couple of Western-themed minor hits, "The Man Who Robbed the Bank at Santa Fe" and "The Man Behind the Gun" for RCA Victor, and in 1965, the label also released an LP of Snow's Western songs, dedicated to The Sons of the Pioneers (Tim Spencer wrote the liner notes). But he started recording Western material at the beginning of his career,  in the 1930s, including songs like "Answer to 'The Blue Velvet Band'",  which is introduced to the listener by his verbal exchange with old cowboy friends coming off the trail. The Bear Family label issued 6  large boxed sets (from 4 to 12 CDs each) of Hank's recorded transcriptions and commercial releases, but the company also issued 2 Western-themed CDs (totaling 56 tracks) with material recorded between 1936 and 1967, for his Western fans.   
O.J. Sikes