"The Western is definitely ours!"

While promoting We Own the Night overseas, Robert Duvall takes time to talk about his love of Westerns: "The English have Shakespeare, the French have Moliere and the Western is definitely ours. When I was a kid I went to my uncle's ranch in Montana for two summers -- he had a big cattle and sheep place out there. And you know when I first went to Hollywood I would take out a horse every day -- bareback, English saddle, western saddle -- and I learned to jump a horse, so I would have a seat on a horse, because most actors can draw a pistol but they can't ride a horse. So I wanted to do Westerns and it served me well. So I think Westerns are our thing. People say they don't sell but they do sell and as soon as you make them they say, "When are you going to do another one?"

"In England they love Westerns, wide-open spaces and all that, I just like doing them. At the end of my career I thought maybe I could do a gun fighter in a western who is mute, so I wouldn't have any lines..."

More accolades for Wounded Knee

Nominees for the 65th annual Golden Globe Awards were announced this morning, and C&I would like to congratulate Adam Beach (Actor, Miniseries or Movie) and Anna Paquin (Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie), co-stars of the epic HBO production Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (nominated in the Miniseries or Movie category). Winners will be named Jan. 13.

Hat trick

Sam Elliott tells the Kansas City Star that the "Tom Mix-style hat" he wears in The Golden Compass, which opens Friday at theaters and drive-ins everywhere, didn't come from the wardrobe department. Rather, it's his very own chapeau, a gift he received 35 years ago after making a series of beer commercials.

"I have never worn it since. But I took it with me when we started doing the wardrobe fitting for Golden Compass. We tried on several hats. I got the hat out of the car and everybody said that's the hat. With Western characters, it all starts with the hat," Elliott says.

A Grammy nod for Trisha Yearwood

Congratulations to Cowboys & Indians cover girl Trisha Yearwood for receiving a Grammy Award nomination today. Yearwood, a three-time Grammy winner and multi-platinum superstar, was nominated for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her current single, “Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love,” from her debut Big Machine Records album of the same name.

Trisha Yearwood's "Power" play

Trisha Yearwood -- the subject a cover-story profile in the January issue of Cowboys & Indians magazine, on sale Dec. 12 at fine newsstands everywhere -- recently talked with CMT.com about her new CD, Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love. She's happy to report that, at this stage in her career, she's finally reached a "comfort level" while singing in the recording studio:

"I used to worry so much about it being pitch-perfect and over-thinking things. As a demo singer, you would go into a studio and you'd have a limited amount of time to sing your songs. You were getting paid $40 a song, you did your own harmonies, and you got work because you knew the song when you got there and you worked fast and cheap. And then when you go to make your album, and you've been waiting your entire life to make that first album, you think, 'Oh, my gosh. This is an album and it has to be perfect.' As time passes, you learn how to do a better job, just like anything. 'I know how to do this. This is what I do. Just go in and do what you do.' I think I've become less and less critical of my own work through the years. This album is my favorite, vocal-wise -- this one and the last one actually -- because I finally got to a place where I thought, 'You know what? I know what to do.'"

Them's fightin' words, pardner!

Brit film critic John Patterson argues: "[T]he Western per se -- the Western as a thriving movie genre -- is to all intents and purposes deader than Billy the Kid, Jesse James, John Ford and Sam Peckinpah put together."

Live from Australia: The Spaghetti Western Orchestra

A five-piece band in The Land Down Under has mastered the music of Ennio Morricone.