This summer the Western Folklife Center of Elko, Nevada released a CD of music recorded in the early 1950s. The 55 year old recordings are of one of the hottest cowboy bands of the Northwest, the Snake River Outlaws, recorded during a weekly radio show in Missoula, Montana. The Snake River Outlaw Retrospective is a documentary created from the radio recordings and interviews with those who remember the times. There are two local histories present in every town. There?s recorded history -- scrolling microfilm headlines. They read of football scores, weddings, occasional stabbings, a bit of graft here and there, and a smattering of national and international news. But there?s another history. It breathes with life -- full of sounds and smells which linger yet. The Snake River Outlaw Retrospective is a half hour look at not only the chronological history of 1953 Montana, but a documentary about the "other" history of the American west, one that gets at the passions of the times. And what times they were...

This summer the Western Folklife Center of Elko, Nevada released a CD of music recorded in the early 1950s. The 55 year old recordings are of one of the hottest cowboy bands of the Northwest, the Snake River Outlaws, recorded during a weekly radio show in Missoula, Montana. The Snake River Outlaw Retrospective is a documentary created from the radio recordings and interviews with those who remember the times. There are two local histories present in every town. There?s recorded history -- scrolling microfilm headlines. They read of football scores, weddings, occasional stabbings, a bit of graft here and there, and a smattering of national and international news. But there?s another history. It breathes with life -- full of sounds and smells which linger yet. The Snake River Outlaw Retrospective is a half hour look at not only the chronological history of 1953 Montana, but a documentary about the "other" history of the American west, one that gets at the passions of the times. And what times they were...