With over 25 years of songwriting experience, brothers Arthur and Alton Corey also pen tunes with Alton's wife (Sharon), Arthur's wife (Margie), and long-time friend David Kahler. This 2003 release entitled "Tales of the New West" is a nice showcase of their abilities. Well-known Nashville-based tenor vocalist Buddy Jewell was enlisted to sing the songs, and he's got the perfect voice for this material. He's a former Nashville Star winner. Musicians and arrangers contributing to this project include Marty Rifkin, Denny Martin, Steven Cooper, Ed Tree, Joey Scarbury, Eddie Cunningham, and C. Girard. Guitars, bass and drums are supplemented with fiddle, dobro, mandolin, and pedal steel. 

The Coreys' eclectic country set covers many bases. While some of the songs are more memorable than others, they are very deserving of being recorded by top name country artists and heard by larger audiences. A song like "Oh, Justine" might have just started with some potential melody and a snippet of lyric, but hard work and collaboration eventually saw it to final completion. "Parrothead Paradise" incorporates some Jimmy Buffett touches, while "Rosa Danced" was written in a Marty Robbins vein. Some western swing sensibility is built into "Mama Della," based on a poem written by Sharon as a teen growing up in Corpus Christy. The song was a quarterfinal winner in the American Song Contest in the late-1970s. "One Time We Cared" started as a song written about Art's father and his grieving about the passing of Art's mother. Says Art, "We brought in Dennis Kahler, and the song changed for the better by Dennis making the tune commercial. Dennis is the best for when we have written ourselves into a corner and need to get out!" Dennis did the same thing with "Come Back Angel." 

Stories are paramount to having a good song. "Pancho Villa's Gold" tells one about an unholy trio who searched for the treasure like they were insane until they discovered its truth. The Corey's positive song about Howard Hughes, "Silver Wings in the Stars," was submitted for consideration in Martin Scorsese's film The Aviator, but the music director was only interested in period material from the 30s and 40s. 

"I Get the Bird" is a novelty tune about breakup and who gets the flamingo in the yard. The references to a "pink bird on a stick" and his momma's dying words ("Son, you get the bird!") emphasize the importance of catchy hooks in country music. Art told me that to date, that "silly little novelty tune" is the one that many people remember about this album. "Cold & Lonesome Life" was the very first country song they ever wrote, a simple and traditional-sounding three chord diddy that works because of its simplicity and conversational tone. "The Downtown Matinee" is a great closer for this album of original songs because it's a personal statement about the Coreys growing up in the 50s near Pomona, California and their close life-long relationship. Their successful songwriting is documented proof of it. Their younger days certainly might have been characterized by "ridin' and ropin', and all of that kid stuff," but today the Coreys are tunesmiths who are demonstrating considerable aptitude for their craft. I'm not sure if it ever came out, but they were planning a follow-up CD, "Tales Of The New West II," another collection of both up tempo and ballad material. (Joe Ross)