FRESH AIR: In the new Ken Burns PBS series on the history of country music, my guest, Doug Green, talks about the era of the singing cowboy as epitomized by the most popular one, Gene Autry. Cowboy lore, folk ballads, jazz, Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood are all ingredients of the music of the singing cowboys who were movie staples in the ’30s and ’40s and then on TV in the ’50s. A lot of the music has been forgotten, but Green wrote about its history in his book, Singing In The Saddle. And he performs the music with his Western band, Riders In The Sky, which is celebrating its 42nd anniversary. They’ve won two Grammys and, in the movie Toy Story 2, performed the song “Woody’s Roundup,” the theme for the toy cowboy’s TV puppet show. Green also plays Western music on the show he co-hosts, “Classic Cowboy Corral,” on the Sirius XM channel Willie’s Roadhouse. He’s brought some great recordings for us to hear. I love this music, and I hope you will too. MORE