Riders in the Sky
Bands / Ensembles
Riders in the Sky (1977–present) is a Western music group from Nashville, Tennessee, known for reviving cowboy songs and Western harmony singing. Guitarist and baritone singer Douglas B. "Ranger Doug" Green, a former member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys and a country music historian, played the band's first show on November 11, 1977, at a Nashville club with bassist and tenor singer Fred "Too Slim" LaBour and singer Bill "Windy Bill" Collins. Collins left the following year and fiddler Paul "Woody Paul" Chrisman joined, setting the lineup. In 1982 they became the first exclusively Western music act to join the Grand Ole Opry. They hosted Tumbleweed Theater on The Nashville Network (1983–1986), Riders Radio Theater on public radio from 1988, and a Saturday-morning CBS television show in 1991–1992. Accordionist Joey "the Cowpolka King" Miskulin later became the fourth member. The band sang "Woody's Roundup" in the film Toy Story 2, and its companion album won the Grammy for Best Musical Album for Children in 2001. It won the same category again in 2003 for a Monsters, Inc. tie-in album.