Western Theme Songs

Buffalo fans, drivers help boost Pennsylvania track

Lake Erie Speedway is not exactly a stone's throw from Buffalo. It's location in Northeast, Pa., just off Interstate 90 near Erie, makes it accessible to this area's fans and competitors.

Does this NASCAR-sanctioned asphalt track that is enjoying it's 10th anniversary have a connection to the Buffalo area?

"Definitely yes," said Branden Kaczay, the track's vice president of business operations. "Last year we drew the largest average crowds in our history for our weekly stock car shows of about 4,000 fans per week, and, so far this season, we are currently on pace to break that due to the fact we're getting an average of 4,500.

"We've discovered that for the last two seasons about 35 percent of the cars on average per show in our parking lot have New York State plates. I believe it follows that most come from the western part of New York."

Car counts are improved at Lake Erie and more Buffalo area drivers compete during the season at Lake Erie then in the past.

When the track's premier division, the NASCAR Late Models, run a 75-lapper, the car count overall is nearly 30 with almost 10 from Western New York competing. When a regular 40-lap event is run, Kaczay admits that the count shrinks to about 15 overall on average with a few from this area participating.

"We do get less cars for our 40-lappers but it only makes sense that we're going to get more cars for the longer distance races because drivers get to use their equipment for more laps, making a 75-lapper more worthwhile for them and also the purse is bigger along with the prestige that goes with winning a longer distance event," Kaczay said.

Kaczay has been on the Lake Erie staff since the track was constructed in 2002 and has held his current position since 2008. He remembers when the speedway drew very few fans and cars, but he says that a work-in-progress marketing plan has made them more successful.

"You know that just because we built a $12 million facility here does not automatically mean the fans and drivers will come," said Kaczay. "For a long time they didn't. We knew that it would be tough because we built an asphalt track right in the middle of an area where dirt track racing has been successful for years.

"We decided that instead of being a motorsports facility, we'd take the approach that we are a motorsports entertainment facility. Call it the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) approach. We have good racing here but we mix pyrotechnics, music and special effects into all of our shows.

The Five Best Western Songs | MovieFanFare

Guest blogger Rick29 writes:

The following list represents one fan's rankings of the five best Western songs. I'm excluding pop songs that appeared in Westerns ("Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head") as well as Western musicals ( Annie Get Your Gun , most films with Gene Autry ). I'm sure there will be some dissenting opinions, especially since perhaps the most famous of Western songs comes in at No. 4. But hey, a little lively disagreement is a good thing on a classic movie blog!

1." The Hanging Tree" (Max David & Jerry Livington) - Easily my favorite of the Western "story songs" (it also summarizes the film's theme). After I saw the Gary Cooper movie of the same name, the song stuck in my head to the point that I had to special-order the Marty Robbins recording on a vinyl 45 (yes, that was before MP3 downloads). The song was a minor hit for Robbins on the charts, but it has aged beautifully.

 2. " 3:10 to Yuma" (George Duning and Ned Washington) -  I'll differ from the majority who site Gunfight at the OK Corral as the best of the Frankie Laine-sung Western themes. Yuma is a moody, almost sad piece...a stark contrast to the usual uptempo Western song.

3. " Gunfight at the OK Corral " (Dimitri Tiomkin & Ned Washington) - I can just hear Frankie Laine crooning: "O-K...Cor-ral...O-K...Cor-ral..." As much as I love the music, I feel compelled to shed the spotlight on Ned Washington, who penned the lyrics for several great Western tunes.

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