The group's trio of songwriters Butch Hancock, Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore had garnered influential status individually before reconvening in 1998 to record music for the film The HorseWhisperer.
Robert Redford hired him as an advisor when "The HorseWhisperer" was going into production and, as the movie's director and star recalls in Ms. Meehl's documentary, ended up modeling much of his character on Buck's gentleness and humanity.