Cool, Clear, Water.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is one of my favorite movies of all time. The Coen Brothers film opens with Buster Scruggs (Tim Blake Nelson) riding on horseback and singing his rendition of “Cool Water”. This is how I first heard of this legendary western song.
The song is a tale of a lonesome cowboy, roaming the desert with his trusty steed, Dan. They suffer from mirages along their long search for that cool, clear, water.
“Cool Water” was originally written by Bob Nolan, founder of The Sons of The Pioneers in 1936. They didn’t record the song until 1941 however. It was a minor success then, but became a much bigger song when they re-recorded it in 1947, and then again with Vaughn Monroe in 1948, with more of a big band influenced instrumental than the 1941 or ’47 edition, which were much more subdued tracks in general. The 1941 version peaked at 25 on the US Billboard chart, the ’47 and ’48 editions peaked at four and seven on the US country chart respectively.
“Cool Water” has been covered by a plethora of other artists, the biggest names being, Hank Williams, Marty Robbins, Frankie Laine, Johnny Cash, Eddy Arnold, and Hank Snow. Frankie Laine’s powerful version of the song never found much success in the US but went number one in the UK.
The track has appeared in several movies other than The Ballad of Buster Scruggs as well. Two 1940s westerns, Saddle Serenade, and Along The Navajo Trail. 1946 comedy Ding Dong Williams also featured the song. On a more modern note the Hank Williams version of the song was in Gore Verbinski’s 2011 animated movie, Rango. In 2014 in was performed by Ben Mendelsohn in Lost River. Finally, 2018 is when it was featured in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
“Cool Water” is number three on the Western Writers of America’s top 100 western songs list, just behind Marty Robbins’ “El Paso”, and Eddy Arnold’s “Cattle Call”.