John Barry's first western score came at an important time in his career; he had recently won the Oscar for The Lion in Winter, had written one of his most popular Bond scores in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and mesmerised audiences with his work on Midnight Cowboy. Monte Walsh is almost like a combination of those latter two works.

The previous year, Barry had collaborated with lyricist Hal David to produce probably his best ever song, the brilliant "We Have All the Time in the World" for Louis Armstrong, and the composer and lyricist would combine forces again on Monte Walsh, for "The Good Times are Comin'", performed by Mama Cass of The Mamas and the Papas. It's a good song, but not exactly classic material - a nice melody, and well sung, but would you believe it is presented no fewer than five times on this disc, and so does begin to become a little wearing.

The rest of the score is good, though. Some of it (like the slightly clichéd comedy-sounding cowboy music) will probably appeal purely to Barry enthusiasts, but there are some moments of exceptional film scoring, such as "Sit Him High", a fantastic James Bond-like action cue full of peculiar piccolo and xylophone parts. There's also some harmonica writing which is highly reminiscent of Midnight Cowboy, particularly the cue "Joe Buck Rides Again" from that previous score (which I actually prefer to the famous main title).

As an alleged "bonus", we are given seven tracks of The John Barry Saloon - one of cheesy organ music for a wedding scene, and the rest of honky-tonk piano music versions of the main themes. To be honest, if I didn't know they were written by John Barry, I would probably suggest Hostage Rescue teams the world over use them for forcing terrorists to give themselves up.

Monte Walsh is a good, enjoyable score, but I can't really see it appealing to many people other than Barry die-hards.