The Ballad of Calico was the eighth studio album by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition

The First Edition

The First Edition was a country music/rock band. Its stalwart members being Kenny Rogers , Mickey Jones and Terry Williams...

 and released as Reprise Records

Reprise Records

Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...

 6476. It reached #118 on the albums chart and produced one single, "School Teacher" which reach #91. The album was released in 1972. The album is a country-rock concept album

Concept album

In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

 about the real-life town of Calico, California

Calico, California

Calico is a ghost town and former mining town in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Calico Mountains of the Mojave Desert region of Southern California, it was founded in 1881 as a silver mining town, and today has been converted into a county park. Located off...

. The entire double album was written by Michael Murphey and Larry Cansler and the songs tell the stories of individuals who lived in the town.

The various members, not just Rogers

Kenny Rogers

Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...

, took lead vocals on the different songs, giving the album the sound of it coming from the characters themselves. A booklet with the album includes pictures of the group in period costumes, pictures of the town, and the lyrics written in long-hand with explanations by Murphey about the origins of the individual songs. As of March, 2007, the album remains out of print, though several songs from the album have been released on compilation LPs and CDs

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

.

Side one

The album begins with the instrumental "Sunrise Overture" then goes into "Calico Silver" about a man leaving his farm after a drought to a take a job in the silver mines near the town of Calico. "Write Me Down" is about the people who were forgotten over time. "The Way It Used to be" is about day-to-day life in Calico. "Madame De Lil and Diaboilical Bill", the saloon keeper who scares her boyfriend out of town when she finds out he's stealing from her.

Side two

Side Two begins with "School Teacher", the teacher who faces being an old maid (The teacher, Virginia Merritt, was actually 24 years old at the time and married soon after she left Calico). "Road Agent", about a dead road agent. "Sally Grey's Epitaph" was based almost verbatim on a gravestone in the town cemetery. "Dorsey, the Mail-Carrying Dog", the dog who delivers mail for the disabled postmaster. This song has each member of the group bark like a dog (which is broken by them laughing). The last song suddenly ends with the last phrase "your carrying dog" cut off.

Side three

Side Three begins with the missing phrase appearing and immediately going into the first song, "Harbor for My Soul". "Calico Saturday Night" is an instrumental, followed by "Trigger Happy Kid" about a young boy who idolizes gunfighters. Side Three closes with "Vachel Carling's Rubilator", is about a con man who creates a machine which takes over the town. http://books.google.com/books?id=_ycEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA31-IA13&lpg=PA31-IA13&dq=Vachel+Carling&source=bl&ots=UoYqY4RPrX&sig=oWDcM8GxvVbtoRLQ32ezPySFrfc&hl=en&ei=dEUSTomMAYe3twfo_JHLDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CE4Q6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=Vachel%20Carling&f=false

Side four

"Empty Handed Compadres" is about prospectors who returned without anything. "One Lonely Room" is about a man who never leaves the town after it becomes a ghost town. "Rockin' Chair Theme" is a brief instrumental leading into the next song, "Old Mojave Highway" about the road itself which crossed the desert (now the pathway of Interstate 15

Interstate 15

Interstate 15 is the fourth-longest north–south Interstate Highway in the United States, traveling through the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and Montana from San Diego to the Canadian border...

). "Man Came up from Town" is about remains of early man later found in the mountains. The album closes with "Calico Silver (reprise)" in which the silver runs out and the town becomes a ghost town

Ghost town

A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

.

Side one

1. "Sunrise Overture"
2. "Calico Silver"
3. "Write Me Down (Don't Forget My Name)"
4. "The Way It Used to be"
5. "Madame De Lil and Diabolical Bill"

Side two

1. "School Teacher"
2. "Road Agent"
3. "Sally Grey's Epitaph"
4. "Dorsey, the Mail-Carrying Dog"

Side three

1. "Harbor for My Soul"
2. "Calico Saturday Night"
3. "Trigger Happy Kid"
4. "Vachel Carling's Rubilator"

Side four

1. "Empty Handed Compadres"
2. "One Lonely Room"
3. "Rockin' Chair Theme"
4. "Old Mojave Highway"
5. "Man Came up from Town"
6. "Calico Silver (reprise)"