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Old school Old West

Al Shelton's cowboy arts and crafts once lassoed a movie-star clientele. Outlasting the zenith of the western, he still hears requests for his exacting skills.

Style & Culture

November 07, 2004|Hugh Hart, Special to The Times

"The level of intricacy is just amazing. Who would be insane enough to take the time to do all that work? It's a labor of love that reminds me of some of the really intricate Chinese craft."

An unexpected guest comes through the door. It's Paul Marshall, a studio musician from Tujunga. Shelton disappears into the store's dimly lighted recesses, returns with a couple of acoustic guitars, hands one to Marshall and plunks himself down on a stool. The pair start strumming, immune to the cars whizzing by outside. A few shafts of late afternoon sunlight penetrate the old man's shop as Shelton rears his head back and begins wailing the 1957 Roy Acuff ballad "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain."


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"Love is like a dying ember

Only memories remain

Through the ages I'll remember

Blue eyes crying in the rain."

"That's a beautiful little song," Shelton mutters. "I've been doing it for a while. A lot of people cry when I do this song. Maybe, like me, they just cry easy."

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