Associated Artists and Past Performers
The Gillette Brothers - Guy & Pipp
Since taking over the running of the family ranch in 1983, the Gillette Brothers, Guy & Pipp, have found that diversification is not only a necessity, it keeps things interesting. Their involvement in the cattle business as well as the music business - both as performers and music venue operators - proves challenging.
The revitalization of cowboy music and poetry in recent years has allowed the brothers to combine their life long interest in the history of the west and its music with their musical experience. They have recorded and released six albums of traditional cowboy music interspersed with a few originals. Most recently they have been exploring the Celtic roots as well as country blues influences on the music that cowboys have sung.
They have played at major events and venues around the country including: the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV; the Monterey Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival in Monterey, CA; the Santa Clarita Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival in Santa Clarita, CA; the Willow Tree Festival in Gordon, NE; the Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering in Prescott, AZ; the Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon, GA; the National Arboretum in Washington, DC; the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, WY; and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, OK. In August 2005, the Gillette Brothers traveled to Japan representing the State of Texas at the World Expo - Aichi/Nagoya, performing their music at the US Pavilion.
The Gillette Brothers were recipients of the 2003 and the 1998 Will Rogers Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Advancement of Contemporary Cowboy Music-Best Duo/Group by The Academy of Western Artists. They have also received the National Cowboy Symposium's American Cowboy Culture Chuck Wagon Award.
The Gillette Brothers run The Camp St. Cafe & Store in Crockett, Texas a live music venue that has featured some of the top performers in the country.
Website : http://www.campstreetcafe.com/guy&pipp.htm
R.P. Smith
R.P. Smith is the fourth generation to raise cattle on the Pinecrest Ranch in Custer County NE. Pinecrest Ranch marked its centennial in 2006. R.P. says that it still isn't a real big place, he just comes from a long line of stubborn and persistent people. The commentary and poetry that R.P. shares are a by-product of the beef industry, and have been processed by reciting for ruminates, relatives and ranchers.
R.P.'s material is inspired by his family and what's going on at the ranch, giving his work an authenticity and down-to-earth quality that strikes a familiar chord with his audiences, regardless of their occupation. He has found that humor, and a firm faith that God is in control, are might important tools to have when life takes an unexpected turn.
One of the biggest unexpected turns in R.P.'s life have been the many opportunities he has had to present his stories and poetry. He has had the opportunity to share his talent in sixteen states and has even slipped over the border into Canada.
He is always glad to get back home and wait for the next inspiration to come, when he is stricken with a new idea he tries it out on his wife, the dogs and replacement heifers, and when he wants a tough audience, his six children.
Charley L. Chambers
Charley Chambers was born in Hominy, Oklahoma one hundred (more or less) years ago and has lived most of his life in the Pawhuska, Oklahoma area. After high-school, he was offered a football scholarship to Oklahoma State University, but turned it down because he didn't realize the OSU fed the athletes... so he joined the Marines for his three squares a day. He spent two years in the Marine Corps as a clerk answering the telephones – much to the surprise of his superiors, he had never used a telephone before!
After leaving the Marines, he decided he would never join anything again – "not even the church". He also made up his mind that all he wanted to do was be a cowboy. And so he was and still is. Charley has worked for smaller independent ranches as well as some larger operations – Silver Lake, Adams, Codding, and Ferguson Ranches – at all levels.
He retired as a foreman of the Ferguson Ranch in 2000 and continues to run his own cattle in Chautauqua County, Kansas.
He has two sons who are also cattlemen. Charley has been reciting poetry, singing songs, and storytelling for years; honing his skills and presentation to his horse, Sandy, while out on the range. Only recently has Charley "gone public". Sandy would like you to sit back and enjoy the poems and style of Charley Chambers.
Michael and Dawn Moon
Michael and Dawn Moon live on the 87,000 acre Chico Basin Ranch, south of Colorado Springs, where Michael is manager, with their four young children. Dawn is originally from Ohio and Michael is from California, with his ranching roots in northeastern New Mexico. They met and were married in Clark, CO, where they worked on both cattle and guest ranches. They have since served in the Peace Corps in Ecuador and Michael has managed cattle ranches near Kremmling, CO, Malta, MT, and Santa Fe, NM.
Michael has been writing music since he was a teenager and most often performs with his guitar, though he also plays piano and banjo. Dawn's instrument throughout her life has been her voice. A blessing in thirteen years of marriage has been the development of blending their voices in music and performing that music for others. They have two recordings and love to perform Michael's original songs, as well as some of the classics of Western music and other genres.
Jay Snider
Jay Snider was born and raised in the southwest Oklahoma and calls Cyril, Oklahoma home. Born to a ranching and rodeo family, his dad a top roper and rodeo cowboy, and his grandad a brand inspector for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. He rodeoed throughout most of his early years and now stays busy raising ranch horses, cattle, and team roping. Jay continues to judge a few amateur rodeos around home and hosts annually the Invitational Rafter S Ranch Cowboy Reunion.
Some of his recent performances include the Chisholm Trail Stampede in Duncan, Oklahoma, the Western Heritage Classic in Abilene, Texas, and the National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock, Texas. Jay is a six time nominee for male poet of the year by the Academy of Western Artists. His album "Cowboyin', Horses and Friends" was nominated for best poetry album for 2001. In July of the same year, Jay was honored to have been chosen by CowboyPoetry.com to be the fifth Lariat Laureate winner for his poem, "My Old Amigo Lum".
Jay appeard on Country Music Television's "Christmas in Cowboy Country" hosted by Clint Black. He was a Silver Buckle winner at Kanab, Utah's Cowboy Poetry Rodeo in 2004 and was a feature cowboy poet at the Ozarks Fall Roundup Cowboy Gathering hosted by Shepherd of the Hills Outdoor Theater in Branson, Missouri. Jay also was a feature cowboy poet in 2005 at the Kamloops Cowboy Festival in Kamloops, British Columbia and at Cal Farley's Youth Poetry Gathering near Amarillo, Texas. Most recently, Jay was awarded the "Best of the Best" trophy at Kanab, Utah's Cowboy Poetry Rodeo and was invited to be a feature poet at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada in February of 2006.
Jay's newest cowboy poetry CD, "Of Horses and Men" was named "Cowboy Poetry Recording of the Year" by the Academy of Western Artists for 2006
Mary Abbott - Kirkland, Arizona
This spring will bring changes for Mary Abbott as her husband has decided to retire from active ranching come May. They plan to move to New Mexico and set up camp. Mary has mixed feelings about the change because she so loves the ranch life. But, where one door closes, God always opens another. She plans to continue working horses and will see what opportunities await.
Apache Adams - Fort Stockton, Texas
One of the wildest of Texas cowboys, Apache ranches along the Rio Grande, shoes horses and day-works.
He is best known in West Texas for once roping a mountain lion. He is a popular campfire storyteller. A favorite saying of his is that he can ranch because his wife has a real job and makes the money.
Oscar Auker - Clarendon, Texas
Oscar Auker is the 15-year-old son of a working ranch cowboy. He has always lived on Texas ranches, learning the lifestyle and skills he loves. He went to the first Youth Cowboy Poetry Gathering in 2002 and began his wonderful journey of reciting classic poetry on stage. He has virtually grown up with the counsel of not only the working ranch cowboys in his world, but the guidance and counsel of the wonderful men and women who make up the cowboy poetry and music family.
Andy Wilkinson produced Oscar's first recording, "Waitin' on the Drive." It focuses strongly on the works of Larry McWhorter as well as poetry of Bruce Kiskaddon and S. Omar Barker.
Oscar recites the classic cowboy poems that reflect the lifestyle he lives and loves, and enjoys helping to keeping those old works alive. He is home-schooled and has a lot of time for braiding rawhide, hitching horsehair, reading books and riding his young horses. His mentors include Red Steagall, Joel Nelson, Ross Knox, Andy Wilkinson and J.B. Allen.
Leon Autrey - Mountainair, New Mexico
Leon Autrey was born into a New Mexico ranching family on Dec. 22, 1941. He has been a rancher all his life. Leon has been performing since 1991. He's performed in Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and California.
He is a published author of cowboy poetry, an artist, songwriter and singer. Leon has recorded four albums on the life of the cowboy. He writes about the life and people in the ranching world. He lives with his wife, Darla on the Leona and Darla Ranch. They have two sons and six grandchildren.
Sally Bates - Yavapai County, Arizona
Born and raised in Prescott, Arizona, Sally's roots are sunk deep in the malapai ridges of Yavapai County. Her family tree "forks both ways" into the Arizona sod, having had the honor of five living generations of women near Prescott until 2003.
Her roots ramble through the culture and heritage of the working cowboy as her dad worked ranches in the shade of Camp Wood Mountain for over 50 years, and her grandfather cowboyed in western New Mexico as a young man. She spent most of her life in the company of cowboys and their families, having both friends and family who worked on ranches and earned their keep as cowboys.
Sally is a published writer poet, songwriter and photographer, and has been nominated four times as Female Cowboy Poet of the Year through the Academy of Western Artists. She's earned a living at different times in her life as a campcook, rider of drag, saddlemaker's wife and substitute mother to orphaned calves and donkeys. She's proud to have served the cowboy community as the secretary to the Arizona Cowpuncher's Association for two years, and helped keep the Poets Gathering in Prescott going strong.
Mike Beck - Salinas, California
Although this is Mike Beck's first time in Alpine, he has been a featured performer at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, 12 times.
He makes his living playing music and conducting horsemanship classes in the U.S. and Europe. He lives on the Dorrance Ranch outside of Salinas, California.
Jerry Brooks - Clear Creek Canyon, Utah
Jerry Brooks is known to friends and admirers simply as "Brooksie," and as one of the finest reciters of both classical and modern cowboy poetry to be found anywhere. Not only does she have a knack for recognizing a great poem when she hears one, Jerry can recite for hours on end from a huge personal collection of memorized works.
At home, both in a saddle and under her "miner" hat, Jerry Brooks is a living tribute to the proud tradition of the strong, courageous, yet artistic Western woman. "Brooksie" makes her home in Clear Creek Canyon, Utah.
The Burson Family - Texas Panhandle
We are the Burson Family from Channing, Texas. We’re fourth generation ranchers in the Texas Panhandle. Our operation is both cow-calf and yearling.
Our family is blessed to get to do what we love for a living, as well as for fun. Music is an important part of our lives and we strive to share our way of life and values through it. We combine classic and original cowboy songs as well as instrumental and old-time mountain music.
Ross is 16 and plays mandolin and guitar. Brittany, 14, sings, and plays fiddle and mandolin. Dale sings, and plays guitar, mandolin and banjo. The Burson Family is thrilled to once again be invited to Alpine. They say it’s truly one of their favorites.
Don Cadden - Dripping Springs, Texas
Don and his wife, Pam, live on a small place near Dripping Springs in the Texas Hill Country where they run a few head of cattle. They also have a place in Fort Davis, and Don can be found day-working in Far West Texas quite often. Don first performed at the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine in 1990, and the next year at the National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock. He has been a regular ever since at these events, and has been a featured guest at the Alberta Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Canada, and at the Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering. He has performed at a number of other Texas poetry and music gatherings, the Texas Folklife Festival and the San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Having spent a good bit of time in the South Texas brush country, Don has written songs and poems about that area. His "Ballad of Ernesto Galvan" has become a favorite at gatherings, and is being performed by other groups as well. The cowboy is truly an American legend. Don not only sings the old songs, but weaves the tales of the cowboy and his special way of life.
Kip Calahan - Animas, New Mexico
Kip Calahan's involvement in the traditions of the West are as straightforward as it gets.
She lives on the vast, historical Gray Ranch in the far Southwest corner of New Mexico. She frequently cooks for the cowboys, rides and works cattle, and joins in the conversations. She is as attuned to the daily life on the ranch as she can be. Her music reflects her admiration, respect and love for the life that she shares with her husband, Richard, and their daughter, Kyli. Whether she is writing about her home in the sprawling Animas Valley or reflecting on the many cowboys who have drifted through, she writes with honesty, sincerity and a deep understanding of the "cowboy way." Kip has won her share of awards, and has shared the stage with Alabama, The Judds, Merle Haggard, Ian Tyson and Baxter Black.
Bob Campbell - Kilgore, Texas
Over the past few years, Texas singer/songwriter Bob Campbell has earned a national reputation as a top-notch cowboy balladeer and songwriter. The late Buck Ramsey once said, "Bob is one of the most genuine and sincere songwriters in the West today. His songs are clean and pure."
"I grew up around cattle and horses on old family land in the deep, rolling hills of northeast Texas," Bob says. "Early on, I learned how to work and developed a love of the land and an appreciation of tradition and history that is with me yet. I love nothing better than to be horseback in good country."
He has been a featured performer at many gatherings, including the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nev., the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine, the Arizona Cowboy Poetry Gathering at Prescott, the Durango Poetry Gathering in Colorado, the National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock and the Cowboy Youth Gathering at the Cal Farley Boys Ranch in Tascosa. He has also performed at the National Cowboy and Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. In 1996, he was featured along with Red Steagall in a video, "Roll On, Cowboy," which aired on national television. "Roundup Time" was named Song of the Year in 1997 by the Academy of Western Artists.
He conducted a creative music program in Texas schools through the Longview Arts in Education program and as an artist-in-residence with the Texas Commission on the Arts.
He recorded a live children's album, "Bob Campbell and Kids, Too!" and has one CD, "The Golden West," which contains 13 original songs and one poem.
John Campbell - George West, Texas
John Campbell is a fifth generation Texan. His ancestors came from Ireland to South Texas in 1834 to settle on land granted to them by the Mexican government, located on the Nueces River near the present town of George West, which was named after an early Texas trail driver and rancher. He is proud to say that a portion of that land is still held by family members after 170 years.
John resides on the West Ward Ranch near George West, and has been employed there on a full or part-time basis since he was 12 years old. In 2005, he retired from the Three Rivers Independent School District as a high school special education teacher. He has two sons. Cody and his wife, Mary Margaret, have two children, J. Michael and Maggie Nicole; they live in George West. Casey and his wife, Kody, have a daughter, Darla Faye, and they also reside in Live Oak County.
He has written three books, Prickly Pear, Cowboys, and Poetry; Gator the Cowpony; and Brush Country Bard. He participates in the National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration in Lubbock. John is also involved in the George West Storyfest, the San Antonio and Corpus Christi folklife festivals, the Kingsville South Texas Ranching and Heritage Celebration and the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine.
Working cattle with his friends is still one of his favorite pastimes.
Craig Carter - Nashville, Tennessee
Craig was born and raised on a ranch in Southwest Texas. He is the epitome of the classic country-western singer. He has written songs and created melodies that ring with authenticity and match the beauty of his home in the Big Bend Country of Texas.
His band, "The Spur of the Moment Band" has played from the West Coast to the East Coast, and everywhere in between, including overseas.
Ivan Cates - Amarillo, Texas
Ivan Cates was born April 11, 1942, at Crowell in Foard County, Texas. He was raised up in a farm and ranch environment with music on both sides of the family.
He enjoys all types of music, especially Bob Wills and Buck Ramsey-Western swing and cowboy songs. He writes poetry, songs and stories about the cowboy and American Indian cultures.
Cates worked as a cowboy in Foard County and on the Canadian River until 1984, when he started his own landscaping and mowing business.
He has been married to Judy for 42 years; they have three children and seven grandchildren.
Patty Clayton
Patty Clayton is a performing songwriter whose original ballads and "borrowed" songs celebtrate the present and yesteryears of the West. She knows her subject well; she was raised in the West, in a family rich with ranching history in the Pacific Northwest.
Patty has garnered four nominations for Western Female Vocalist of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists, as well as a 2003 Album of the Year nomination for her release, "Just a Little Bit Cowgirl".
The Western Music Association named Patty 2004 Female Performer of the Year, and she was also awarded the Will Rogers Award for the 2007 Western Female Vocalist of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists, assuring her a spotlight amongst the West's finest.
Robert Chaison - Commanche, Texas
Robert Chaison has a deep interest in cowboy culture and its history that has resulted in a collection of all manner of cowboy trappings, books and art. He especially appreciates the classic poems of Barker, Kiskaddon, Knibbs and O'Malley.
It is reported that he stacks books on every horizontal surface, and reads the same books over and over, even to the point of reading two short stories from the same collection at once. He reads all of the "ands" and "thes" in spite of having memorized them years ago. Robert and his wife, Mignonne, operate a ranch in West-Central Texas where they raise Brangus cattle and quarter horses.
He is a graduate of Sul Ross State University and really enjoys returning to Alpine and "Harvard on the Hill."
Doris Daley - Calgary, Southern Alberta, Canada
Southern Alberta native Doris Daley comes from a gene pool that includes Mounties, cowboys, pie bakers, bushwhackers, good dancers and sorry team ropers.
An emcee and featured performer throughout the U.S. and Canada, last year's poetry highlights include gigs for the Saskatchewan Opera Company and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Doris and her husband, Bob, a fly-fishing guide and outfitter, live on the Bow River near Calgary.
Doug Davis
At the age of nineteen, Doug Davis headed West from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to realize his dream of being a cowboy.
He worked on ranches in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, New Mexico and Texas, and spent several years working as an exercise boy and groom on Thoroughbred farms and race tracks, including Saratoga, Belmont Park, Keenland, Churchill Downs and Fairgrounds in New Orleans. Doug also started colts (before and after attending a Ray Hunt clinic) and worked for cutting horse trainer Leon Harrel.
His 1947 Epiphone 'Texan' guitar always accompanied him on his travels. Long Winter nights in the Rocky Mountains and sultry Summer evenings in the Bluegrass country were spent learning to play and sing cowboy songs, Swing standards (Eastern and Western), Bluegrass and Country classics of the Thirties and Forties.
He worked on several movies over the years, including 'The Alamo' (2004). His poetry explores the humor inherent in the cowboy way of life. Doug was a multi-species caregiver in South Brewster County for eleven years before moving to Fredericksburg in 2000. He performs frequently at Luckenbach, Texas and other Hill Country venues.
Stephanie Davis - Montana
After moving back home to her small ranch in South-Central Montana, Stephanie keeps busy writing, touring and heading up her own small label, Recluse Records. Daily ranch life provides Stephanie constant inspiration. "Each season brings distinctive chores and changes," she says. "Springtime to me means calving and branding, rejoicing at the sight of the first crocus, and listening for the distinctive trills of returning sandhill cranes. Summertime brings herding cows to new grass, haying, gardening and putting up pickles and jellies with the neighbor ladies. With fall comes gathering, sorting and shipping calves, extra blankets on the bed at night, blazing yellow displays of quaking aspen, and flocks of southbound geese. Winter means feeding hay, chopping ice, wearing three or more layers of clothes, and some serious cribbage games at the kitchen table. One night last January, while trudging to my writing cabin, I looked up to see a green curtain of northern lights rippling across the sky, accompanied by a choir of coyotes. Who wouldn't be inspired?"
A one-room homestead cabin built in 1900 by a Finnish bachelor farmer immigrant now serves as Stephanie's writing and recording headquarters. "When I first saw it sitting out in the field, the cows had been living in it and it was in tough shape," she says. "I'm sure the neighbors thought I was crazy, but I took one look at it and said 'that's it-my writing cabin!'"
After a summer of re-roofing, wiring, chinking and restoring, Stephanie moved her desk in and began working on what is now her latest collection of songs and stories. Early audience response to this yet-unrecorded material has been extremely gratifying. "I have gotten more letters, e-mails, calls and responses from these new songs than all the earlier ones put together, and they're not even recorded yet!" she laughs. "I am taking it as a billboard from the universe that I'm on the right track."
Sam Dawson - Valley View, Texas
Born and raised in Webb County, Texas, Sam Dawson cowboyed on the family ranch until out of high school. He went to college in Houston, then returned home to his cowboy roots. Sam has done a lot of daywork in Texas, New Mexico and up into Oklahoma.
After a number of years, he started doing camp work in Texas, and learned that being a long hand was about as good a life as anyone would want. At 35, he found a woman who could put up with him, so he married her.
After some rather serious accidents, they moved from West Texas to the north in the Red River area. There, he managed a small cow/calf operation until he retired from active cow work. He took up writing cowboy poetry and stories several years back, and now enjoys entertaining folks with some of the stories of cowboy wreaks.
Ray Fitzgerald - Van Horn, Texas
Ray was raised on a small family ranch in Oregon. He remembers that, "We did not have horse trailers and calf-chutes; we did everything horseback with a lasso rope. We leased summer range, and by the age of 12, me and brother Joe spent our summers in line shacks herdin' and saltin' cattle."
Ray is a retired Border Patrol agent who has become a favorite around the campfire where his poems and stories take on epic proportions. He currently day-works on West Texas ranches.
Rolf Flake - Snowflake, Arizona
Rolf was born in Snowflake, Ariz. in 1931 and was raised on the family ranch. His cowboy roots run deep in dry Arizona soil. He inherited cowboy heritage from his father, his grandfather and his great-grandfather, who drove cattle from Utah and settled in northern Arizona in 1878. Rolf has been married to his wife, Jean, for 48 years, and they have six children, 23 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Rolf's cowboy poetry career began in 1981. Since then, he has written over 200 cowboy poems. He has recited in Elko, Nev., several times as a featured poet, and at the Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering in Prescott, and gatherings in Utah, Nevada, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. His poetry book, Western Verse or Worse, is self-published and he has produced two cassette albums of cowboy poetry, both of which were nominated as best albums by the Academy of Western Artists in successive years.
Doug Foshee - Alpine, Texas
Doug Foshee has written cowboy poetry since he attended his first gathering in Alpine in 1993. During his spare time from teaching, he cowboyed on ranches in South Texas. He is now retired after serving 11 years as a speech therapist and 21 years as a principal in Texas public schools.
He says of himself, "I was born at a very early age in Harris County, Texas. I spent the first 21 years of my life there and never once felt completely dry, so each time I moved, I ended up further west from the coast."
Doug has published a book of cowboy poetry entitled Cowboy Heart, Soul, and Humor that depicts his love and respect (along with the humorous side) of the cowboy way of life.
He and his wife, Clara, have lived in Alpine since 1992.
Jeff Gore - Coleman County, Texas
Born in Brownwood, Texas, Jeff grew up in a pastor's home. From the time anyone can remember, all Jeff wanted to be was a cowboy. Though many children say that for a time, the desire never left him as he grew older. At age three, Jeff began singing for churches, civic and community groups with his family, who moved to Sherman when he was nine years old.
At about the age of 10, he began working on a ranch owned by friends of the family who had a son about his age. All through junior high and high school, Jeff worked with horses and cattle in the area. He graduated from Howard Payne University in 1984 and from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1986. He had continued singing and entertaining, and because he mostly sang cowboy and gospel music, he began to get invited to cowboy poetry/music gatherings, chuck wagon competitions, ranch rodeos and community celebrations across the country. Eventually, these cowboy events began using Jeff's abilities as a minister to do church services around the chuck wagons and in the rodeo arenas. He now lives in Coleman County just south of Abilene with his wife, Donna, and their children, Mark, 20, Addie, 18, and Molly, 15. He cowboys on ranches and ministers in ranching and rural areas, as well as at many cowboy events.
He has recorded six albums of cowboy and gospel music, was named the Male Vocalist of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists in 1997, and has been nominated six times since. He has appeared in movies with Tommy Lee Jones, Sissy Spacek and Farah Fawcett, among others, and has appeared in commercials for Maxwell House coffee and Chevy trucks. Jeff is respected by the cowboys with whom he rides as a true hand-that is what he is most proud of. After all, from the time anyone can remember, all Jeff wanted to be was a cowboy.
Alice Hancock - Lake County, Oregon
Alice Hancock spent the first 12 years of her life in southern Arizona and New Mexico, mostly in a small farming community on the Gila River in New Mexico before moving with her family to Oregon. In 1957, she met and married Sunny Hancock, an Arizona cowboy/cowboy poet. They later moved to the ranching country of Lake County, Oregon, where she still lives. It was quite an experience for someone who had never seen more than a dozen cows in one bunch in her life! She learned to ride a horse (not very well), rope a steer (not at all well) and brand calves (pretty well), and to irrigate, mow, rake and bale hay (really well). After working on ranches (he cowboying, she cooking) and finally have a small one of their own for a while, they both retired to a house and five acres where they raised a few steers in the summer and watched it snow in the winter. Alice still lives there, but leases out the pasture, irrigating and fence repairing.
She has always had a love for poetry, learned from her mother who recited and sang the old songs and poems of the west. After she married Sunny, of course, she was introduced to cowboy poetry. Although she learns and recites poetry, it is one of her greatest sorrows that she can’t write it. Try as she will, her head just won’t think in rhyme.
Audrey Hankins - Congress, Arizona
Audrey has spent a big share of her married life on ranches in central Arizona, and a pack outfit in Colorado. Most of her poetry is a memorial to real horses, cattle, cowdogs, and places she has known.
She says, "As a small child I already knew I wanted to be a cowboy. I never wanted to cook or be penned up indoors... due to some misguided quirk of fate I've spent a lot more time cookin' for cowboys than cowboyin'. I even got loco enough to enjoy it. About the time my ranch and pack outfit years ended, along came cowboy poetry gatherings and some of the most satisfying friendships of my life."
The Academy of Western Artists in 1998 awarded her as Cowgirl Poet of the year and her book "Raised on Good Pasture" was also nominated.
Andy Hedges - Lubbock, Texas
Andy Hedges is a singer/songwriter and guitarist hailing from Lubbock, who, for the last 10 years, has entertained audiences all over the West with his classic cowboy recitations, clean guitar work and cowpunch folk music.
Andy has performed at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nev., the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine, and at countless cowboy gatherings, theaters, coffee houses and concerts around the West.
In 2004, Andy debuted his first music album, "City Boys." Produced by Andy Wilkinson, "City Boys" is a collection of "eclectic cowboy folk" music. It includes new songs by Andy, Rod Taylor and Andy Wilkinson, old obscure songs from the cowboy, Scottish, bluegrass and folk traditions, as well as songs by Bob Dylan and Don McLean.
Producer Andy Wilkinson writes: "Cowboy music was always like the cowboy: unsuitable for fencing, impossible to corral, unwilling to go any way but its own. Which pretty well describes the music of Andy Hedges."
Don & Sug Hedgpeth - Medina, Texas
Don and Sug Hedgpeth live near Medina, Texas. They have been married since 1964. Don received the Heritage Award at the 2002 Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
Together, they play and sing traditional cowboy songs, and Don also recites a few poems he has written.
Yvonne Hollenbeck - Clearfield, South Dakota
Yvonne Hollenbeck lives near the tiny village of Clearfield in South Central South Dakota, where she and her husband, Glen, own and operate a working cattle and quarter horse ranch where Yvonne actively participates in every duty involved with its operation. Her poetry, mostly humorous in nature, is based upon her everyday experiences; however, she often writes about the not-so-humorous situations her mother and grandmothers experienced in their rural settings.
Yvonne performs at many public functions throughout the upper Midwest, and has recently been featured at many of the top cowboy poetry gatherings in America. She has made four recordings of her poetry, has published three books, and is fast becoming one of the most published poets in the Western entertainment business. Yvonne has received multiple nominations and awards from the Academy of Western Artists and Western Music Association, and is the only two-time winner of the prestigious Will Rogers Medallion Award for Excellence in Cowboy Poetry for two of her books.
Randy Huston - New Mexico
Randy Huston's roots as a cowboy run deep, as evidenced by his continuing partnership with his dad in the cattle business with ranches in Nashville and Cuervo, New Mexico. He is on the board of directors of the North American Corriente Association and competes in the sport of team roping when time allows.
Born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, Huston is a fourth generation livestock producer. He was breaking horses for wages at 13, when he began competing in Junior Rodeo. He continued to rodeo in high school and college, earning a scholarship to New Mexico State University as a bullrider, bareback rider and team roper. Later he worked ranches in the West, from the Alvord in Eastern Oregon to the JJ Ranch on the Canadian River breaks in West Texas.
He graduated from Washington State University and then moved to Kentucky to be a horse doctor for some of the best-known horse farms in the world. In the early 1990s, Huston pulled from his experiences as a cowboy and former resident of the West to write and record "Keepin' The New West Wild." Randy was just re-elected to the board of the North American Corriente Association and also has a new album out, "There's A Hole in Daddy's Rope."
Chris Isaacs - Eagar, Arizona
A three-time winner of the Academy of Western Artists Will Rogers Award, Chris Isaacs is a poet/storyteller who has lived the life that he tells about. He has cowboyed for most of his 59-plus years, and his poems and stories are alive with the heart and humor of life from a cowboy's point of view.
He can usually find the funny side of any situation, and is considered by many to be one of the finest humorists in the country, but is also passionate about his art form.
"Humor has always been a great part of the cowboy poetry genre," he says. "But those critics who say that is all cowboy poetry is need to dig a little deeper. They might be surprised at what they find."
Chris has been published in numerous magazines, has published two books and recorded five albums.
He has worked at many different aspects of the cowboy life, from being a full-time working cowboy, to rodeoing, to many years as a packer. He is currently the cow boss for the 9 Cross Ranch in Springerville, Arizona. When he's not working, he can be found at home in Eager with Helen, his wife of 36 years.
Joaquin Jackson - Alpine, Texas
A native Texan, Joaquin Jackson was born in the Northwest Texas Panhandle. He served nine years in the Texas Highway Patrol, and 27 years as a Texas Ranger-21 of those in Uvalde and the rest in Alpine. He retired in 1993.
Joaquin is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and holds a B.S. from Sul Ross State University. He now busies himself with private investigations and serves as a national director for the National Rifle Association.
He lives in Alpine with, Shirley, his wife of 39 years. They have two sons and two grandsons.
Jill Jones - Driftwood, Texas
Jill is an accomplished and powerful singer whose yodeling has won much award-garnering attention. She was the founder and lead singer of the Hays County Gals, who won the "Country Group of the Year" award in 1996 from the Academy of Western Artists.
Jill was named yodeling champion in 1994 by the Western Music Association and in 1998 by the Academy of Western Artists. Besides playing her guitar, she is known as a singer of lost songs from the 1930s and 1940s. Jill is the lead vocalist of the Lone Star Chorale and appears with them, and as a soloist, on television and at gatherings around the country.
Kay Kelley - Alpine, Texas
Kay has felt privileged to have taken part many cowboy poetry gatherings from the first one in Elko to her current favorite regional events. In 1989, she recited one of her poems on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson but much prefers the down-home atmosphere and authenticity of the traditional gatherings. She treasures the friendships that have come to her through cowboy poetry.
In October 2007, she married Gene Nowell who manages a ranch south of Alpine. Kay loves to day-work for the Y&O and also help Gene with his own registered Gelbvieh and commercial herds. She is easing out of the horse business but keeps some good ones around to play with and go work cattle on when she is not homeschooling her son, Colin.
Her poems have been published in several anthologies and come from her experiences of breaking colts, working cattle and the cowboys she has known.
Suzi Killman - Wickenburg, Arizona
Suzi Killman is the daughter of Hildred Goodwine, nationally known western heritage artists and member of the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame.
Suzi grew up around the ranching industry while her father, Jim Goodwine, worked as a cowboy on ranches around the Prescott area until they bought their own ranch just northeast of Wickenburg. She breaks and trains horses, teaches western riding, wrangles for neighboring dude ranches and team ropes with her husband, Bill. She is relatively new to the cowboy poetry circuit, but not to "cowboying" or the lifestyle of the west. Her poetry and the songs she sings speak of her love for the Arizona mountains and the ranching way of life.
Linda Kirkpatrick - Leakey, Texas
Linda Kirkpatrick was born and raised on a ranch in South Central Texas, and her ranch life experience gave her the foundation to research and write about cowboys, cowgirls and life in the West. She has performed at major gatherings throughout the states of Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Nevada and Utah individually and as a member of the group Sunset Serenade. She is a Silver Buckle winner in Poet Serious and Reciter Serious at the Western Legends Roundup and Cowboy Poetry Rodeo in Kanab, Utah, in 2004.
Her stories and poems can be found in her book, Somewhere in the West. She was a contributor to "The Big Roundup" anthology, and is an Academy of Western Artists Buck Ramsey Best Poetry Book Award winner. Her poetry has been featured on the radio and in other publications.
Ross Knox - Arizona
Ross is an Oregon born cowboy who has cowboyed all over the West from Oregon's ZX Ranch to the 06 in Texas. For many years he was the head packer in the Grand Canyon making daily trips down the South Kaibab trail with a mule string to Phantom Ranch on the canyon floor.
He now works as a packer for the US Park Service in Saguaro National Monument near Tucson. Ross may have the largest repertoire of classic Cowboy poems in the country. He also writes his own poetry and lives outside Benson, Arizona.
Deanna McCall - Timberon, N.M.
Deanna McCall comes from a long line of ranchers, the first starting in 1848 in Texas. She grew up with the old traditions, which she shared with her children. She writes from her own experiences now, sharing the view of a hand, wife and mother. She and her family ranched for 22 years in Nevada and have currently moved near Timberon, N.M. They have opened a school to teach the cowboy way of life, "Cowboy Curriculum," in hopes of helping to preserve ranching culture.
Deanna has appeared at the Elko and Prescott gatherings, the Autry Museum in California, and at numerous events throughout the West. Her works have been included in several anthologies and recordings.
Rusty McCall - Timberon, N.M.
Rusty McCall was born in Elko, Nev., to a ranching family with a long history of old stories, songs and poems. He was raised on a remote ranch 100 miles from Elko without electricity or phones. He attended a one-room school until 8th grade, when he either boarded out for high school or was home-taught. He attended college in Twin Falls, Idaho, before he moved with his family to a ranch in the Sacramento Mountains of southern New Mexico this spring.
Rusty was the youngest poet to appear in Elko at age 4. He is known for his recitations of the old cowboy classics, and has begun to write some of his own poems. He has appeared in Elko many times, and at other gatherings in Prescott, Ariz., Cedar City, Utah, and Las Vegas.
Karen McGuire - Alpine, Texas
Karen Roach McGuire, middle daughter to Nessye Mae and J.A. Roach of Fort Davis, has been in Alpine since 1967. Six children and eight grandchildren are her proudest accomplishment. All can sing and several play the guitar. Karen inherited her love of horses from her mother and her patriotism from her father, and the love of music, and of God and His creation from them both.
Karen and her husband, Brad McGuire, are currently living at Paisano Baptist Encampment as caretakers. They are both busy workers at home, in church and in the community. "Still, my most favorite thing is sitting around, singing with my family--old and young," says Karen.
Pat Meade - Warren County, Iowa
Pat Meade has been involved in agriculture all his life. He was born to a family in eastern Iowa, where he was involved with raising livestock, crops and enjoying the classic country music of the '50s and '60s. Influenced by an uncle from South Dakota who was an original member of the old Cowboy's Turtle Association, he started to rodeo while in high school, and worked several events, including saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling and calf roping. Pat was also a member of a local band that played at various dance halls around the area that were so popular back then.
In 1973, he and wife, Nancy, along with two daughters, Jackie and Lori, made the move from Iowa City to a farm in southern Warren County, Iowa, where they could concentrate more on the livestock sector of agriculture. The rigor of running a farm and raising a family took precedence over the music, so the guitar was set aside for several years. Then, as Pat says, "The school bus don't stop here anymore," and things slowed down a bit on the Windmill Ranch. So the guitar came back out of the closet.
From a few local gigs and jam sessions, his interest in music was rekindled. His chance visit to a cowboy poetry gathering lit the flame that had been smoldering all those year, and he realized that this was the type of music that struck a chord with him, the kind that had a story to tell and will let you paint your own picture of a simpler time and place. His favorite places to entertain are the cowboy poetry gatherings and livestock-related events where he can mix and mingle with the folks whose roots run deep in agriculture. His recent performances have found him in Texas, Colorado, Kansas and Wisconsin.
Recently, Pat has recorded three albums that contain that good ol' cowboy/country flavor, written by some of the best "story" songwriters in the business.
Lynne and Ken Mikell - Cottonwood, Arizona
Ken and Lynne Mikell play a wide range of traditional music with particular attention to the Celtic roots of cowboy music. Using harp, guitar, recorder, fiddle and harmonica, they animate and illuminate the music and poetry that followed the trail west. They have been making music together for over 30 years.
From old time trail songs to the golden era of the radio and silver screen cowboy, Ken’s rich vocals and Lynne’s beautiful harp put a new twist on old time favorites. They have an extensive knowledge of the history of Western music and enjoy sharing it with audiences. They were present at the first Arizona cowboy poetry gathering in Prescott in 1987. Since then, they have been featured at gatherings in Sierra Vista, Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, Alpine and many others. Their work in schools and classrooms is educational and entertaining, introducing a new generation to an important part of America’s unique cultural heritage. They are especially proud of their work with Yavapai College and Northern Arizona University elderhostel programs, which encourage them to teach as well as entertain.
The music of the Old World found a new home at the hearths and campfires of the Old West. Ken and Lynne Mikell are proud to be a part of that continuing tradition.
Chuck Milner - Roger Mills County, Oklahoma
Chuck Milner is a singer/songwriter from Oklahoma who has been singing and playing cowboy music for 20 years. He has been a featured performer at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Washington D.C., the Smithsonian Institute Folklife Festival, cowboy poetry gatherings in Elko, Nev., and Alpine, the Lowell Folk Music Festival in Lowell, Mass., the NCHA Futurity Finals, Fort Worth, WRCA Ranch Rodeo Finals, Amarillo, and the Rafter S Roping, Cyril, Okla.
For the last 16 years, he has been a featured performer at the Chuck Wagon Gathering, Cowboy Hall and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City. He is a former artist-in-residence for the Oklahoma State Arts Council, and has also worked with the Mid-America Arts Council and the National Council for Traditional Arts.
He and his wife, Beth, are raising their two children, Hallie and Cody, on their Rush Creek Ranch in Far Western Oklahoma. They have a cow/calf operation and also raise a few horses. Hallie, 13, and Cody, 10, often help their dad with the music. Hallie plays the fiddle and Cody plays the mandolin. They are known as the Rush Creek Wranglers.
In 2001, the Milners received a Centennial Ranch Award for their Smoot-Hood Ranch in Greer County, as it has been owned and operated by Beth and her family since 2001. In 2005, Chuck was honored with the Heritage Award by the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
Glenn Moreland - Fort Davis, Texas
Glenn began playing the fiddle and guitar in the late '60s around Austin. He fell in love with cowboy songs and later, took up the fiddle to learn the tunes that were the favorites of the cowhands. Working as a cowboy in West Texas, he added many songs to his repertoire including some that he wrote. He has been nominated by his peers as a performing musician to the Academy of Western Artists.
Glenn's quick wit, wry humor and knowledge of cowboy history make him a favorite performer. Sometimes solo, and sometimes with his partner, Washtub Jerry, he has entertained over much of the Southwest, from the Big Bend Ranch to trail drives in New Mexico, as well as many cowboy music festivals throughout Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. He is also a chuckwagon cook, receiving the Will Rogers Award for Chuckwagon of the Year in 1997. He lives and works in Fort Davis with his wife, Patty.
Joel Nelson - Alpine, Texas
Joel earns his income by starting colts and day-working. His poetry took him to Northumberland below the Scottish border in 1999 where he was a poet-in-residence sponsored by the Mid-Northumberland Arts Group.
His first CD of poetry, "The Breaker in the Pen," was nominated for a Grammy in the "Spoken Word" category, and he recited poetry at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
Nika Nordbrock - Prescott, Arizona
Nika Nordbrock was born and raised as a farm kid with ties to the land. She learned about cowboy poetry in Hawaii during the summer of 1984 when Joe Wilson of the National Council for the Traditional Arts brought "The Cowboy Tour" to Oahu, Maui and the Big Island.
When she moved to Prescott in 1986, she again met Everett Brisendine, an old-time cowboy whom she had met when he was on that national tour. She has been involved with cowboy poetry and the Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering since 1988 as a volunteer and member of the gathering planning committee.
In 1999, she began doing daywork for the P-Bar, Cross S and Timber Springs ranches in Walnut Grove and Parks, Arizona. She has fixed fence, ridden drag, pushed cows, put out protein, helped with gathers and branding, and cooked for branding/round-up crews.
She was invited to recite classical and contemporary cowboy poetry and Hawaiian mele (songs) at the Flagstaff Cowboy Poetry Gathering in 2004. She also recited in 2004 and 2005 at the Prescott gathering, and in open sessions at Elko and Alpine in 2005. She recites classical cowboy poetry-S. Omar Barker, Badger Clark, Curley Fletcher, Sharlot M. Hall, Bruce Kiskaddon and Henry Herbert Knibbs-as well as the work of contemporary cowboy poets who have given her permission.
Biscuits O'Bryan - San Angelo, Texas
Biscuits O'Bryan is the cook for the I.O. Everybody Ranch. His grandmother said he started telling stories when he was two, and some of them were even true. Biscuits has been featured on John Pronk's "Texas Tales" and Tumbleweed Smith's "Sounds of Texas."
He has twice served as a celebrity judge at the Jack Daniels Invitational World Championship Barbecue Cook-off in Lynchburg, Tenn., and was thrice nominated as best storyteller/humorist by the Academy of Western Artists. When not performing, he is the Rev. Monte Jones. He and his wife, Virginia, live in San Angelo. He is a fifth generation Texan whose great-great-grandfather, Joseph Bell Chance, fought in the Battle of San Jacinto. Biscuits served with the U.S. Army Special Forces, Airborne (Green Berets).
He holds both a B.A. and M.A. from Sul Ross, where he was named a distinguished alumnus. He also holds a Master of Divinity degree from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.
Terra Peters - Marathon, Texas
Originally from Bastrop, Texas, Terra Peters, 19, was raised on her family's ranch south of Marathon. She picked up a guitar at 10, and fell in love with it. At 15, she landed her first gig, and has been singing all around West Texas ever since. At 16, she began attending Sul Ross State University.
A working cowgirl, she loves horses and everything to do with the ranching lifestyle. Among her other passions are art and acting. She starred as Annie Oakley in Sul Ross's production of "Annie Get Your Gun," and plans to pursue her passion in both acting and music.
Gary Prescott - Ovalo, Texas
Raised on the family ranch near Bryan, Texas, Gary draws from his youthful experiences and from several years of working in South Texas to write his songs. These songs, written from the heart of a cowboy, have brought the cowboy experience to life for many, and have validated a way of life that is so dear to others.
His songs strive to keep the history of the American cowboy alive and give his fans the feeling of being more closely connected to their Western heritage.
Jean Prescott - Ovalo, Texas
A native of West Texas, Jean Prescott is known as the "songbird of the prairie." Her grandfather, a cowboy for the famous J.A. Ranch and other ranches in the panhandle of Texas, had a direct influence on Jean and the direction her life would take. She says she wears her western heritage as comfortably as a well-broken-in pair of boots. A multiple award-winning artist, Jean's latest CD, "An Inspirational Tapestry of the West," was recently voted the 2002 Western Album of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists.
In 1998, she was honored by the State of Texas for her musical contribution to the preservation of Texas music and history. Her rich, alto voice graces an interactive music exhibit at the new National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. She has six albums of cowboy and western music available, including her award-winning "Prairie Flowers" CD. She and her husband, Gary, make their home on a small ranch south of Abilene where they raise paint and quarter horses.
Mike Querner - Lubbock, Texas
Mike Querner is no stranger to the Western way of life. His family has been involved in ranching for five generations. He was raised around cattle and horses and still day works on local ranches as time permits. Mike has been writing and performing cowboy poetry since 1989.
His poetry has taken him throughout the Western United States. He is a member of the advisory board for the National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration held in Lubbock each September, the largest event of its kind in the U.S. Mike has performed on stage with such notable artists as Baxter Black, Wallace McRae, Waddie Mitchell and Red Steagall. He has been featured on "The Eyes of Texas" television show, and has performed by special invitation for Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Randy Rieman - New Mexico
Randy Rieman lives in New Mexico and spent several years on the Parker Ranch in Hawaii starting and training young horses.
His poetic interests lie with the classics of the American West and the Australian Bush. Randy is known not only for his masterful renditions of the cowboy classics but also for his exquisite braiding of rawhide reatas. He produced a two-part documentary on horse training that features the late Bill Dorrance.
Chris Roach - Alpine, Texas
Chris Roach was born and raised in Alpine. He grew up around livestock. The ranching life provided plenty of topics for Chris to base his original poetry on. He began writing poetry as a result of a high school English assignment.
Today, Chris continues his poetry and spends time day-working for area ranches and riding colts.
Nessye Mae Roach - Fort Davis, Texas
Nessye Mae considers birth on a ranch, growing up on ranches and being trained in ranch work by her father to have been her finest blessing. Her favourite activities include riding, cutting cattle, lecturing on cowboy life and teaching horseback riding.
The Texas Historical Commission presented her with the Award of Excellence for Preserving History for her Jeff Davis County Mountain Dispatch column called "Long Ago."
Nessye Mae was the 1999 Heritage Award recipient at the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
Dan Roberts - Aledo, Texas
Dan Roberts is a cross between George Strait and Chris Ledoux, yet his style is like nobody in country music today.
A solo artist of just four years, Dan's previous 18 years in the music industry were spent in Nashville honing his craft as a songwriter. He has penned numerous billboard chart songs, including several for mega-superstar Garth Brooks. When Dan teamed up with Brooks to pen #1 smash "The Beaches of Cheyenne," he was off and running. Garth signed he and Bryan Kennedy to a two-year deal to open his world tour in 1996-97.
When he stepped off Brooks' tour bus, he picked up his pen and wrote an album for himself called "There's a Little Cowboy in All of Us." Bookings began to pour in for this authentic cowboy and his unique style. He followed up with his second CD -"Cowhand.com" - which charted on both Gavin and Billboard.
The Roberts family moved to Texas in 2000. Dan's career picked up steam when he was awarded Male Vocalist of the Year and Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists.
His third CD, "Viva La Cowboy," featured two chart singles for the Texas Music Chart, "I'm the One to Call" and "Swingin' Till We Can't See Strait."
Echo Roy-Klaproth
Echo Roy-Klaproth is a 4th generation Wyoming rancher who teaches English and farms with her husband, Rick, near Shoshoni, Wyoming. She writes to pay tribute to the unique heritage her family has enjoyed - raising cattle and sheep on ground homesteaded by their great-grandparents in the late 1800's. Her most recent accomplishments include editing an anthology of the "fine lines" from contemporary cowboy poems and songs titled "Scattered, Lasting Remnants" and producing "A Nameless Grace" a CD devoted to ranch women, past and present. Her next project in "Echoes of 4th Generation" a book of prose and poetry that chronicles modern ranching and farming in Wyoming and the West.
contact for info : www.writerswest.com
Jack Sammon - Rydal, New South Wales, Australia
Jack was born and raised on cattle stations in the north of Australia, his father was a station manager on the edge of the Simpson Desert. He worked in this camp as soon as he was old enough to ridge a horse and went on his first droving trip when he was about ten.
As soon as he was old enough to leave school (fourteen) he started work as a stockman, droving and horse braking until he was twenty when he got a job as head stockman on Ardmore Station which was two thousand square miles and ran around twenty thousand head of cattle. That was the days before fences and they lived out in the camp for most of the year.
From 1971 to 1978 he did cattle droving from one station to another. Since then he has worked as a coal miner and works with cattle and horses in his spare time as well as making saddles and stockwhips.
Matt Skinner - New Braunfels, Texas
Matt became a professional musician as a result of the profound influence of the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine. Since then he has been touring on the road as a front man for his own band and sideman in several others, while producing albums and doing session work for other artists.
He plays music in many different styles, but has never lost his passion for cowboy songs and poetry.
Ann Sochat - Canutillo, Texas
Ann, the granddaughter of a cowboy and ranch foreman, is a published author who has spent the last years interviewing cowboys, young and old, and doing research, much of it on horseback, on aspects of cowboy life.
Her original poetry is tinged with humor, sadness, and always a respect for the men and women who settled the West and are still found ranching it today. Ann was the 2000 winner of the Will Rogers Award as Best Female Cowboy Poetry Performer by the Academy of Western Artists.
Red Steagall - Fort Worth, Texas
The entertainment career of Red Steagall has covered a period of 30 years and has spanned the globe from Australia to the Middle East, to South America and the Far East. He has performed for heads of state, including a special party for Pres. Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1983, and has completed three overseas tours for the U.S. Information Agency to the Middle East, the Far East and South America.
As a native Texan, he enjoyed a career in agricultural chemistry after graduating from West Texas State University with a degree in Animal Science and Agronomy. He then spent eight years as a music industry executive in Hollywood, and has spent more than 30 years as a recording artist, songwriter, and television and motion picture personality.
Although he is best known for his wonderful Texas Swing dance music and such songs as "Here We Go Again," "Party Dolls and Wine," "Freckles Brown" and "Lone Star Beer and Bob Wills Music," Red is beloved by Texas cowboys for the quiet times they have spent with him around chuck wagon campfires. In their opinion, Red Steagall's best music has never been heard by the public. And, if you ask Red where his favorite place to play is, he might say some famous stage in Nashville, California, Spain or Germany-or he might say some lonesome cow camp in West Texas.
Gail Steiger - Prescott, Arizona
Gail Steiger comes from both a ranching and songwriting background. His grandfather, Gail Gardner, wrote several well-known cowboys songs, including "Tying the Knots in the Devil's Tail" (or "Sierry Pete's") and "The Dude Wrangler." Gail worked on his father's ranches on and off while growing up, and later worked full-time on the Cross U and Spider Ranches in Yavapai County. He's also worked for the Yolo Ranch, the 7UP, the DC Cattle Co. and the 06 Ranch.
In 1987, Gail, his brother, Lew, and some people Gail had worked for and with made a film about cowboys called "Ranch Album," which was ultimately released as a national PBS special. The film was awarded a CINE Golden Eagle, TV Guide called it "cinematically brilliant and wonderfully constructed" and The Wall Street Journal said it was "a gorgeous film." It was also included in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts/UCLA Film and Television Archive Series of Outstanding Documentaries. Gail has been the foreman of the Spider Ranch since 1995.
He continues to work part-time with Lew on various film and multimedia projects. He's been writing songs for 20 years, and he tries to write about real life. Sometimes the songs are about cowboys or cowboy life, and sometimes they're about a cowboy's take on life in general.
Michael Stevens - Alpine, Texas
Michael Stevens is a guitar builder, horseman and musician who grew up on a quarter horse farm in Ohio.
Michael currently manufactures a line of his own instruments in Alpine, and helps friends on local ranches when he finds time. His early experience with horses include reining and calf roping. He later acquired a passion for the hackamore while professionally training Arabian horses.
Rod Taylor - Cimarron, New Mexico
Rod Taylor is originally from Lubbock, Texas. He has been cowboying for 30 years, mostly on Northeastern New Mexico ranches of over 100,000 acres.
Since 1983, he has worked for the Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, N.M., where he has responsibility for the cowherd. He has played music for over 30 years and has released three albums. He has performed in Alpine, Prescott, at the Cowboy Hall of Fame, and at gatherings around the country. He has also appeared in videos, commercials, television and film. He is active in the Cimarron Maverick Club, which presents rodeos and ropings for the benefits of community and charity.
In May of 1990, he released an album, "Ridin' Down the Canyon," which is a collection of contemporary and classic cowboy songs, and a couple of originals. In the spring of 1995, he released an album of mostly folks songs called "A Philmont Collection." His band, "The Rifters," released their first album in 2004. Rod had an acting role as the deputy sheriff in Director Ron Howard's "The Missing." He lives with his wife, Patty, on the ranch.
Texas Sand - Snyder, Texas
Texas Sand is a group of acoustic musicians who enjoy playing traditional Western music – cowboy songs, Western standards, blues and lively fiddle tunes – which has become a part of the rich heritage of Texas. As you listen to the music of Texas Sand, you can picture yourself sitting on the front porch of an old ranch house a hundred years ago.
Texas Sand entertains across Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma appearing at festivals, ranch rodeos, chuck wagon gatherings and dances. Texas Sand's music fares well beyond the reach of the highline wires. Members of the band are Jackie Greene, vocals and guitar, from Snyder and Valerie Moss-Greene, fiddle, from Snyder.
Washtub Jerry - Fort Davis, Texas
Washtub Jerry is a recognized authority for building and playing the washtub bass. In 1999, he was named "Instrumentalist of the Year" by the Western Music Association.
Jerry has performed with Patsy Montana, Yakov Smirnoff, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Riders In The Sky, Peter Yarrow, Johnny Gimble, and yes, Don, Waddie, Red and R.W. (plus hundreds of others musicians)! Washtub Jerry is the fifth generation of South Dakota homesteaders and has lived among West Texas ranchers and cowboys for over three decades.
Andy Wilkinson - Lubbock, Texas
A writer and singer of contemporary Western folk music, Andy is a poet with a guitar.
Through his songs, he tells stories of the American West of yesterday and today, mixing the music with history and sociology. Andy's stories, many of which are based on the life and times of his distant uncle, Charlie Goodnight, are taken from the factual world, using emotions and beliefs, and philosophies, myths and legends.
With a varied background-college and graduate school, a dozen years as a policeman and an equal stretch as a businessman-he now draws his wages as a full-time writer and performer.
Jim Wilson - Alpine, Texas
Born in Austin and raised in San Antonio, Jim served as a Texas Peace Officer for nearly 30 years and retired as the sheriff of Crockett County in 1996.
Since his teens, Jim has rodeoed, team roped and worked on area ranches. "I've always tried to keep at least one good horse and make a hand at cowboy chores," Jim says. He began playing while attending Texas Christian University, but his earliest memories are of his father singing the old cowboy songs like "Leaving Cheyenne" and "Streets of Laredo."
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