The Road West

The Road West is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from September 12, 1966 to May 1, 1967 for twenty-nine episodes with rebroadcasts continuing until August 28. The hour-long series, sponsored by Kraft Foods, aired in the 9 p.m. Eastern Monday time slot opposite The Andy Griffith Show and Family Affair on CBS and the crime drama Felony Squad and the prime time soap opera Peyton Place on ABC.Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall originally alternated with the series as monthly specials.

Cast and premise

The Road West stars Barry Sullivan as Benjamin "Ben" Pride, the patriarch of a pioneer family in Kansas. The series also stars Kathryn Hays as Elizabeth Pride, Ben's second wife; Andrew Prine as Ben's 30-year-old son, Timothy "Tim" Pride, and Brenda Scott as the daughter, Midge Pride. Prine and Scott, who played brother and sister in the series, had been briefly married in real life prior to the debut of the program. Other cast members were Kelly Corcoran as son Kip Pride; Glenn Corbett as Chance Reynolds, Elizabeth's brother; and Charles Seel as Tom Pride, Ben's father and the grandfather of the family.

Six Days on the Road

"Six Days on the Road" is an American song written by Earl Green and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio songwriter Carl Montgomery, made famous originally by country music singer Dave Dudley. First released in 1963, the song became a major hit that year and is often hailed as the definitive celebration of the American truck driver.

In 1997, the song was covered by country music band Sawyer Brown, who took the song into the Top 15 of the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.

Dave Dudley version

According to country music historian Bill Malone, "Six Days on the Road" was not the first truck driving song; Malone credits "Truck Driver's Blues" by Cliff Bruner, released in 1940, with that distinction. "Nor is it necessarily the best," said Malone, citing songs such as "Truck Drivin' Man" by Terry Fell and "White Line Fever" by Merle Haggard and the Strangers as songs that "would certainly rival it".

However, "Six Days," Malone continued, "set off a vogue for such songs" that continued for many years. "The trucking songs coincided with country music's growing identification as working man's music in the 1960s," he said. Many country music artists and bands—including Alabama, Dick Curless, Merle Haggard, Kathy Mattea, Ronnie Milsap, Jerry Reed, Del Reeves, Dan Seals, Red Simpson, Red Sovine, Joe Stampley, C.W. McCall, Steve Earle, among many others—recorded successful truck driving songs during the next 25 years. Several of those artists—Dudley included—became almost exclusively associated with songs about truck drivers and life on the road.

The Balham Alligators

The Balham Alligators were a band from London that mixed rock 'n' roll, cajun, country and R&B. The band centred on singer and instrumentalist Geraint Watkins.

Career

The band came together by chance at a London pub in 1983. The original line-up consisted of Geraint Watkins, Robin McKidd, Kieran O'Connor, Arthur Kitchener, and Gary Rickard. The Alligators played a hybrid blend of musical styles, including Rock 'n' Roll', Blues, R&B, Celtic Folk, Swamp-Pop, Country, Swing, Cajun & Zydeco.

The Balham Alligators performed in venues around Europe. Early albums included The Balham Alligators and Life In A Bus Lane. The pressure of constant touring began to take its toll with the continued ill-health and eventual death of Kieran O'Connor (d. 1991), the departure of Kitchener and Ron Kavana, and despite the recruitment of Pete Dennis to replace Kitchener convinced the remaining members it was time to call it a day.

The following years were spent pursuing individual projects with Watkins and Rickard working with Charlie Hart as, Rickard, Watkins & Hart, with Watkins eventually leading his own outfit, The Wobblers, in 1992. Robin McKidd formed The Companions of The Rosy Hours a western-swing band. Despite the four years since the original band's demise, McKidd was still receiving offers of work for the Alligators, persuading Watkins and Rickard to try out a few gigs with The Wobblers as a backing band, it became apparent that the Alligators were still a viable concern. Bolstered with morale and momentum they recruited session musician, Bobby Irwin on drums and ex-Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers' bass guitarist Paul Riley and by the latter half of 1995 they recorded Gateway To The South (1996) and followed by Cajun Dance Party (1997).

Six Days on the Road (album)

Six Days on the Road is the title of the twelfth studio album released by the American country music band Sawyer Brown. It was released in 1997 (see 1997 in country music) on Curb Records. Its title track and lead-off single is a cover of the Dave Dudley hit from 1963. This cover reached number 13 on the Billboard country charts. Following this song was another cover, this time of "This Night Won't Last Forever", which was a pop hit for Bill LaBounty in 1978 and later for Michael Johnson in 1979. Sawyer Brown's cover was a number 6 country hit in late 1997. Also released from this album were "Another Side" and "Small Talk", both of which failed to make the country Top 40.

Content

"The Nebraska Song" is a tribute to Nebraska Cornhuskers quarterback Brook Berringer, who was killed in a plane crash in 1996. The song is track number 18, the same as Berringer's jersey number. (To make this possible, tracks 13 through 17 are blank.)

Critical reception

Bob Cannon of New Country magazine rated the album 3.5 stars out of 5. He wrote that the band "serve up a batch of tunes that, while never matching the emotional depth of 1992's 'All These Years', is a top-shelf collection that stresses the group's versatility." He praised the rock influences on some tracks and called "The Nebraska Song" "intimate", criticizing only the cover of "This Night Won't Last Forever" by saying that it was "as bland as the original."