TROY TUCKER MUSIC 1010 CRAIG FERRIN LISTENING TO MUSIC PRESENTATION

INTRODUCTION CHRIS LEDOUX (OCTOBER 2ND 1948 – MARCH 9TH 2005) LYRICS GUITAR COWBOY Hello, my name is Troy Tucker. I would like to share the music of Chris Ledoux with you and I hope by the end of this presentation I can make you become a fan. I know he’s not classical or jazzy but he sure can tell a story when he sings. Whether it’s a slow fall in love song or a fast paced turn your spurs in and hold on song, he makes you feel like your living it.

BIOGRAPHY Two-time Wyoming State Rodeo Bareback Champion Intercollegiate National Bareback Riding Champion 1970 became a professional Rodeo Cowboy 1976 World Bareback Riding Champion Chis Ledoux was born in Biloxi Mississippi but he called Wyoming home. His origin was Cheyenne, Wyoming but he later died in Casper, Wyoming. Chris Ledoux was a true cowboy. He not only sang the cowboy songs but he lived them. I think that’s what makes him such a special artist. Most country artists now days have never even ridden a tame horse let alone a wild bucking bronco. I was fortunate to see Chris perform around 10-12 times and every time I saw him it was like the first time. His energy and enthusiasm on stage was always at max level, Even after he returned from his liver transplant, he still came out and rode the mechanical bull while singing. Just watching him you could see how much he enjoyed doing what he did.

BIOGRAPHY Established his own recoding label with his father Sold albums out of his truck at rodeo’s During college and into his early rodeo career Chris was writing songs and when he had enough written, he started his own recording label with his father. He started selling his music on cassette tapes out of his truck at rodeo’s. In 1976, he won the World Bareback championship. Chris kept living the rodeo life until 1980 when he officially retired from rodeo to be a full time country artist. Still writing songs, Chris started performing concerts and by 1982 he had sold over 200,000 albums. I remember listening to my dad’s cassette tapes of Chris Ledoux and loved the stories he would sing. The earliest song I can remember, “The Yellow Stud” and that was probably around 1979 when I was eight years old. I have been hooked on Chris Ledoux music ever since. His son Ned Ledoux played drums for his dad but now sings with Chris’s old band “The Western Underground” and recently opened for Toby Keith. He sings several of his dad’s songs and it sounds just like Chris. His dad would be proud.

biography 1999 – first gold album 2005 – 20 greatest hits went platinum Even though he wrote and performed country music for almost forty years and produced thirty-six albums, he doesn’t have a lot of music awards to show for it. But for Chris, that’s just fine. As several of his songs state, he never sold out to go to a larger recoding studio or moved his family to Nashville (as it states in his song “Western Skies”). For me personally, it makes me like him more because he stayed true to his roots and you can tell by the lyrics in all of his songs that he lived what he was singing.

biography Chris was guitarist, singer and entertainer Country Western Country rock Since I was eight years old I have been a Chris Ledoux fan but his popularity rose to new heights when Garth Brooks mentioned him in his 1989 first single “Much too Young to Feel This Damn Old”. The line is “A worn out tape of Chris Ledoux, lonely women and bad booze, seem to be only friends I’ve left at all”. Any Chris Ledoux fan can tell you that this kickstarted the second half of his career. Chris didn’t know who Garth Brooks was and had no idea he used his name in a song. They both credited each other for the success of their own careers and grew to be great friends. Garth even went to the hospital and tried to become a liver donor for Chris but the tests didn’t match up. Every concert I saw Chris play he thanked Garth and the two times I saw Garth perform, he thanked Chris. It was a great relationship and fun to watch if you were a country western fan.

Composition 1 “BAREBACK JACK” WRITTEN BY CHRIS LEDOUX Fun rhythm, fast paced song Song about growing up to be a rodeo man 00:00-00:12 simple guitar riff with a lead and back up guitar with a soft drum beat. Very simple rhythm 00:12-00:20 same rhythm but a keyboard comes in and pace picks up 00:20-01:07 singing starts for the first verse, drums get faster with cow bells 01:15-01:58 second verse starts, violin, piano and keyboards now play a faster pace 02:10-02:48 third verse starts slide guitar joins in 02:50-03:11 slows down than picks back up and finish's with fast beat

COMPOSITION 2 “western Sky’s Written by Chris ledoux Soft and easy song with a great melody Song about his love of the living under the western sky's of Wyoming 00:00-00:11 piano with drums , soft smooth rhythm 00:12-00:48 first verse starts with guitar, steel guitar comes in towards the end of the verse 00:56-01:33 second verse starts, second guitar with violin joins in enhancing the melody 01:38-01:58 third verse? the tune changes to slow deep guitar and a stronger drum 01:59-02:15 it rolls back into the original tune and rhythm and finishes the verse 02:17-03:12 fourth verse continues with all instruments working together 03:12-03:31 singing ends and the music fades with violin, piano and guitar

COMPOSITION 3 “county Fair” Written by Chris ledoux Fun, simple upbeat song about working hard and taking your girl to the fair 00:00-00:07 simple fun guitar rhythm 00:08-00:14 piano and drums join in upping the tempo 00:14-00:48 first verse starts, back up guitar joining in and drums slightly picking up pace 00:48-01:08 chorus starts 01:09-01:36 second verse starts. all instruments keeping the same simple pace 01:37-02:03 chorus starts 02:04-02:17 third verse starts 02:18-02:37 chorus starts 02:38-03:01 singing ends with music fading out

Composition 4 “fathers and sons” Written by chris ledoux An Easy on your ears tune that is about a father wanting the best for his son’s 00:00-00:08 soft guitar with drums and violin 00:09-01:20 first verse, steel guitar joins in 01:25-01:36 chorus 01:37-01:45 chorus fades out with just music 01:46-02:23 second verse, piano has now joined the other instruments 02:51-03:07 chorus 03:08-03:40 same as before, chorus music fades out

references https://chrisledoux.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyAK5UKTGjs&list=RDuyAK5UKTGjs&t=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7KeCCEx6fk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zZvWaJN1Ms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmrEAjgQlR0 https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=images+of+chris+ledoux&qpvt=images +of+chris+ledoux&FORM=IGRE