Gail Steiger, 2007, Elko, Nevada, photo by Jeri L. Dobrowsk

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Gail Steiger is a songwriter, filmmaker, and cowboy who has been the foreman of remote Spider Ranch in Yavapai County, Arizona since 1995. He is a frequent performer at the Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering and at the Western Folklife Center's National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Gail Steiger's acclaimed Ranch Album film, released in 1988, is recognized as one of the best portrayals of modern cowboy and ranching life on film.  A CD of his music, The Romance of Western Life, earned praise from Cowboy Magazine editor Darrell Arnold, who wrote his music is "... like listening to Bob Dylan if Dylan had been a working cowboy...the lyrics are so beautifully descriptive of daily cowboy life...These are cowboy feelings, simple and profound."  Editor Darrell Arnold, Cowboy Magazine. Gail Steiger is the grandson of Delia Gist Gardner and Gail I. Gardner. His recitation of Delia Gist Gardner's poem, "Hail and Farwell,"  is included on The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Two.   Below: The Romance of Western Life CD Ranch Album film Cowboy Magazine article Additional links     Delia Gist Gardner's moving poem, “Hail and Farewell,” is delivered in a singular performance by Gail Steiger on The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Two. "The Sierry Petes (or Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail)" by Delia Gist Gardner's husband, Gail I. Gardner, recited by the late J. B Allen, is also featured on the 2007 CD, The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Two.

The Romance of Western Life  CD

"... like listening to Bob Dylan if Dylan had been a working cowboy...the lyrics are so beautifully descriptive of daily cowboy life...These are cowboy feelings, simple and profound."  Editor Darrell Arnold, Cowboy Magazine.

Includes 12 original songs by Gail Steiger:

The Romance of Western Life
Moment in Time
Riding on the Wind
A Cowboy's Prayer (from Ranch Album)
Nevada Highway
Right and Wrong
There Ain't a Day
John and Charlie
Jose Flores
Whistle
My Son (from Ranch Album)
Hired Hand
Hail and Farewell by Delia Gist Gardner

 

Gail Steiger-vocals, guitar
Brent Reason-bass, lead guitars, percussion vocals
Mary Trevor-vocals
Lew Steiger-harmonica

 

Available from CD Baby, the Western Folklife Center, and other sources.

 

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Ranch Album

"Neither hurried nor overly sentimental, this is a magnificent video." Booklist

The tough life of the New West cowboy is lovingly portrayed in this gorgeous film..." Wall Street Journal

"...cinematically brilliant and wonderfully constructed." TV Guide
 

The acclaimed Ranch Album video by Gail Steiger, released in 1988, is cited for its insightful portrayal of cowboy life.  From the producers' description:

Nationally released as an hour-long PBS special, Ranch Album celebrates rough country ranching in Northern Arizona and shows real cowboy life. Season by season, the people of this film describe what they do and why they do it. In the process, they reveal a sense of something more important—a spirit and culture that have survived in the American west for a very long time.

The film is included in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences/UCLA Film and Television Archives' survey of outstanding recent work in the documentary field.

Available from Amazon, The Western Folklife Center, and other sources.

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Cowboy Magazine

Poet, musician, photographer and writer Sally Harper Bates profiled Gail Steiger in a Summer, 1998 cover story in Cowboy Magazine, "Ridin' the Spider" and wrote about the Spider Ranch, about 40 miles from Prescott, Arizona, where Gail Steiger has been the foreman since 1995. Sally Harper Bates writes that the ranch is "one of the most remote areas in Yavapai County. The terrain is some of the most rugged in the West, yet these mountainous rock piles hold some of the best cattle grazing available." About Gail Steiger, she writes, "...the call to cattle runs deep enough in his veins to draw him back to country like the Spider Ranch."

Cowboy Magazine back issues are available from the Cowboy Magazine web site.

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More...

 

  Gail Steiger recites his grandfather Gail I. Gardner's poem, "The Sierry Petes," on the 2003 Smithsonian Folkways recording, Cowboy Poetry Classics.  

 

   Gail Steiger recites his grandmother Delia Gist Gardner 's poem, "Hail and Farewell," on the 2007 CD from CowboyPoetry.com, The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Two.

 

   Gail Steiger has a journal at the Western Folklife Center.

 

 

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