Ol' Cowboys & Dreamers

Remember "concept" albums like The Who's Tommy? Filmmaker Peter Lippman's Ol' Cowboys & Dreamers is a longform concept video, presented in the letterboxed format for...um...artistic reasons, I guess. Here's the concept: C&W singer/songwriter Will Dudley assesses his life in terms that should warrant a visit from the cliché police, calls up old flame Becky Hobbs, and the pair drive off into the sunset in Dudley's truck, meeting singers Fletcher Jowers, Ian Tyson, and the renowned Charlie Daniels along the way, each of whom--in the weird logic of musicals--spontaneously sing a song. There's a lot of "I reckon's" and wistful longings for "one good horse" and "one good woman" (in that order, I believe), but the production is very nicely shot, the music (all original songs) will certainly appeal to the C&W crowd, and the video isn't about buttheads, bimbos, and explosions like a lot of MTV fare. Libraries with a significant music video collection will want to consider this. (R. Pitman)