Track Listing

1. Cowboy's Dream
2. Canyon Sonata
3. All the Pretty Horses
4. Purty Dad Gum Good
5. After the Rain
6. Mild Cello Blues
7. Malarki Opus in D Major
8. John Grady's Angel
9. Edge of the World
10. Get My Boots
11. Strawberry Tango, Pt. 1-2
12. King of Horses
13. Far Away (Alejandra's Phone Call)
14. Porque
15. Love Montage
16. Ain't That a Drag
17. My Last Days on Earth/What's It Like to Be Dead?
18. Long Journey Home
19. Candles and Lies
20. Rainy Room
21. Far Away
22. Far Away (Reprise)
23. Cowboy's Dream/All the Pretty Horses [Medley]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10872 in Music
• Released on: 2001-01-16
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Original language: English

Amazon.com
Novelist Cormac McCarthy's literary vision of the wild west is given wide-screen treatment by maverick director Billy Bob Thornton and a cast that includes Matt Damon, Penelope Cruz, and Bruce Dern. Professional country music journeyman Marty Stuart has performed with father-in-law Johnny Cash, Earl Scruggs, and Doc Watson, in addition to a successful solo career. In his soundtrack scoring debut, he provides short, meditative instrumental pieces that are subtly explosive--rife as they are with strains of old-school country and bluegrass. Cinematic strings and orchestral percussion add a welcome menacing edge, augmenting the rustic approach without crossing over into a compromised "countrypolitan" sound. If anything, it might be nice to hear these themes extended. As it stands, the 23 listed tracks are covered in a little under 50 minutes, with many of the cuts barely lasting more than a minute or two. They stand as a new genre of cinematic country minimalism. --Rob O'Connor

Customer Reviews

Buyer Beware!!
The "All The Pretty Horses" soundtrack boasts bevy of beautful and haunting melodies. Each song allows the listener to escape from the pressures of 21st century life, and to a time and place where the West was still wild and free, and chivalry was still very much alive. Most will recognize composer Marty Stuart from his work in the country music genre. He uses his influence in country when composing songs as it is apparent alot of time and effort went into each one. Kudos go out to him and director Billy Bob Thortan for crafting such emotionally-driven music. This is truly a great album, but....
I cannot in good conscience give this album the 5 stars it should have deserved for the simple fact of the matter that the album seems short. Many of the songs serve mainly as "teasers" as they last upwards to one minute in most instances. That is it. There are television commercials longer then that. The album itself runs around 50 minutes with 23 songs, so one can easily do the math here to figure out that most of the songs serve more as samplers. The length of the songs, or lack of, alone bring the quality of this album down. Why there wasn't a 2 CD set released is beyond me. For Old West enthusiasts, not unlike myself, this album fits like a glove, but still carries with it the mild-nauseating feeling of being having been cheated. For film scores buffs in general, I implore you to try your luck with Tombstone, BraveHeart or Gladiator instead.

Great western soundtrack
This is a must buy for fans of western soundtracks.It mixes beautifully symphonic music with Guitar music and spices it up all together with a south of the border flavor. Haunting music that will make you want to never take it out of your cd changer. It also
Features two vocal pieces, the first a spanish song sung by the very talented Raul Malo of the country group the mavericks, the second song is a beautiful ballad sung by Marty Stuart. Though I never owned any cd's of Marty Stuart he earns my respect with composing this film score.(cowboy hats off to you Mr.Stuart)

A perfect score to enhance a beautifully shot film
Marty Stuart has always been a country traditionalist and it shows in his score to "All the Pretty Horses". His use of mandolins, acoustic guitars and traditional fiddle set the mood and accompany the amazing landscape scenes beautifully. I usually don't leave the theater thinking more about the music than the movie, but this time I did. The spanish song "Porque" is absolutely gorgeous and is sung beautifully by Raul Malo of the Mavericks. He also has a cameo in the film as well. I would highly recommend this cd to anyone yearning for the music of the old west and simpler times.