He's the closest thing imaginable to that staple of modern myth, the horse whisperer.

WSJ: Buck | Green Lantern | City of Life and Death | Mr. Popper's Penguins | Champion Tale of a Horse Guru | Film Reviews by Joe Morgenstern

The significance of the film The Horse Whisperer even enters the discussion and, for the uninitiated, they also tell the story of the group's birth.

NPR: The Flatlanders: The Big Three Return

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 Horse Whisperer.

NPR: The Flatlanders On Mountain Stage

Robert Redford hired him as an advisor when "The Horse Whisperer" 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.

WSJ: Buck | Green Lantern | City of Life and Death | Mr. Popper's Penguins | Champion Tale of a Horse Guru | Film Reviews by Joe Morgenstern