Riders in the Sky join the country music duo for a cut from the upcoming album The Sunshine Shop.
At first glance, Jesse and Noah Bellamy — a.k.a. the country-rock duo known as Jesse and Noah — might appear a tad too young to be singing a tune titled “Old Cowboys.”
“Maybe so,” Jesse told C&I a few days ago. “But we’re getting older every day.”
But seriously, folks …
“Really, it’s just about the romantic notion of cowboys. That’s always been a part of — not just music, but all the different art forms, all the different mediums. Especially in this country, but also all over the world. I mean, the cowboy is just a romantic figure.”
Just to keep their bases covered, however, Jesse and Noah — sons of David Bellamy of The Bellamy Brothers — decided to bring a few real old cowboys along for the ride. That’s where Riders in the Sky came in.
“My brother and I were [recording demos] of some songs,” Jesse said. “And I don’t know, we finished about seven or eight of them. And then I asked him, ‘Do you have anything else?’
“And that was the first time he played the sort of skeleton of [‘Old Cowboys’] for me, and we demoed it.”
Not so long after that, while they were in the studio cutting The Sunshine Shop, their new album set for a May 29 release, “I asked Noah, ‘Hey, remember that song “Old Cowboys” you had?’ So we decided to pull it out and track it with the band. Then we were listening back to it, and I was like, ‘Well, it’d be great to have those classic cowboy-style harmonies in there. And Riders in the Sky are the go-to guys for that. I wonder if I can get ahold of them?’”
As it turned out: Yes, he could.
“Just a month later or something,” Jesse said, “we were booked for a taping of the Jimmy Bowen show here in Nashville. And there were Riders in the Sky. So I talked to Ranger Doug backstage that night, and then sent him the song. He and the other guys loved the song, so they came over and did it with us.
“And here we are.”
“Old Cowboys” will be available Friday wherever you play or purchase your favorite music. Here is the C&I premiere of the accompanying music video.
