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The
National Folk Festival
has announced that it will take place in
Nashville, Tennessee in 2011, 2012, and 2013. The festival moves
every three years; this is its last year in Butte, Montana (July
9-11, 2010).
Last year, cowboy poets and Western musicians at the festival
included
Wylie Gustafson
(and his cutting horse,
Whiskey),
Randy Rieman,
Henry Real Bird,
Jim Brooks,
DW Groethe,
Paul Zarzyski
and
Sandy Seaton Sallee.
See our report with photos from the 2009 event
here.
At the current
National Folk Festival (Butte) web site,
you can see Wylie Gustafson and Whiskey and DW Groethe in the introductory
video stream.
[thanks to
Jeri Dobrowski for the news]
Posted 3/17
North Dakota rancher, poet and writer
Rodney Nelson's
regular
Up Sims Creek
column appears bi-weekly in the
Country Living section of
Farm and Ranch Guide.
The most recent column is titled " Did
Anyone Else Gain Weight During the Winter Olympics?"
Rodney is a frequent performer at the
Western Folklife Center's
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and other gatherings and events across the
West.
You can listen to a
recent performance audio
here at the Western Folklife Center's 2010 National Cowboy
Poetry Gathering web site.
Other recent columns include
"The
many fine qualities of a good cup of coffee," "Power
outages create challenges for modern society ," "Pushing
Snow,"
"Reflecting
on the holiday season celebrated at Sims,"
" View
of a perfect world through my north window, "
" Seasons,"
"It's
a proud moment watching a son become a doctor,"
"Another
successful year at Senior National Finals Rodeo,"
"Recalling
Uncle Ernie's many hunting trips in the area,"
" Restaurants
can be memorable for all sorts of reasons,"
"Fall
is a season of preparing for the next season,"
"Welcoming
new son-in-law to the Nelson family," "Joe
can really play,"
"2009 Senior Olympics included two Dakotans," and
"It's
advisable to be prepared for summer tornado season."
Find many more listed along with his current column.
His poem, "Cowboy Laundry," is featured
on
The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Four.
Read some of
his poetry and more about him in our feature
here.
[photo by Jeri L. Dobrowski;
see her gallery of western performers and others
here.]
Updated 3/1
Writer and poet
Ken Rodgers'
prose and poetry appears in the current issue (Issue 11, Volume 6)
of
Switchback, a publication of
the Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program of the University of San
Francisco. Read Ken Rodgers' "On War and Remembrance"
here in
Switchback.
Ken Rodgers
lives,
writes and teaches creative writing on-line and on-ground in Boise,
Idaho. Read more about him and some of his poetry
here at CowboyPoetry.com.
See more of Ken’s writing at
www.kennethrodgers.com.
[photo: Betty Rodgers
©2009]
Posted 3/15
Poet
Diane Tribitt
and singer
Belinda Gail
have joined together for performances, seminars, and
workshops as "Cowgirl
True."
The collaboration is described, "Our
mission is to spiritually uplift our community and work towards a
greater good through our inspirational seminars, music and
poetry...."
Find more at their web site,
www.cowgirltrue.org.
[Belinda Gail image by Kim Wescott
Photography]
Posted 3/11
Texas writer and poet
Linda
Kirkpatrick
has a new addition to her regular
Somewhere
in the West
column at
Texas Escapes,
an online magazine of Texas travel and history.
In
the new column, "Remembering
Bob Ramsey," she tells about Texas Hill Country rancher, hunter
and storyteller Bob Ramsey (1918-2009). She comments, "Bob Ramsey,
the storyteller, became a great influence on me at a time when I was
totally unaware that it was happening. He was known to many for his
skills as an avid hunter and hunting guide, but to me he was a
rancher first and a storyteller second. His life was full and I was
glad to be a small part of it."
Linda Kirkpatrick's
most recent CD is
Beneath a Western Sky. Her
poem, "When Roundup Time Comes 'Round," is
on the first edition of
The BAR-D Roundup.
Her recitation of Bruce Kiskaddon's "The Broncho Twister's Prayer is
on
The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Two,
and her poem, "The Ranger," is included on
The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Four.
She has another recitation on the forthcoming edition of The
BAR-D Roundup.
Read more about her and her poetry in our feature
here.
[photo of
Linda Kirkpatrick by Jeri L. Dobrowski;
see her gallery of western performers and others
here.]
Posted 3/8
An excerpt from
Oh, You Cowgirl!, by
Shirley Morris (thecowgirlmovie.com)—a
soon-to-be-released documentary film about the early rodeo and Wild
West show cowgirls—is featured at the
Oregon Historical Society. The
exhibit is described:
The Oregon Historical Society Exhibit, "Tall In The Saddle, 100
Years of the Pendleton Round-Up," begins March 5 and runs
through July 4 in downtown Portland, Oregon at the Brooks Julian
Gallery.
A portion of the documentary film, Oh, You Cowgirl! will be
featured within the cowgirl exhibit. Vintage film clips of Bertha
Blancett, CB Irwin, Vera McGinnis and Mabel Strickland will be
featured within the 8-minute clip as well as an interview with
Bertha Blancetts' close family friend, Joanna Juaregui Stuart.
Joanna describes Bertha as much more than a cowgirl. Bertha was an
inspiration who "... grabbed ahold of life and just squeezed it,
getting every drop out of it that she could."
Oh, You Cowgirl! tells a compelling and inspiring story
about the showgirls and cowgirls, like Bertha, who truly were
unsung heroes. Many believe they were here for only a few short
years, making little, if any impact on history. This film suggests
they had a much broader influence in those few, short years. These
women reshaped the American West.
Learn more about the exhibit
here at the Oregon Historical Society web site and more about
Oh, You Cowgirl! at the film's web site,
thecowgirlmovie.com,
and on
Facebook.
Posted 3/4
Eight-year-old poet, songwriter,
yodeler, singer, musician, and ranch gal
Cora Wood will appear before a
joint session of the Wyoming Legislature
on Friday, March 5, 2010. She was invited by her District
Representative, Jeb Steward. The proceedings may be broadcast live
on the web. Check the link
here.
Cora Wood made her first
invited appearance at the
the
Western Folklife Center's
26th Annual National Cowboy Poetry
Gathering in Elko, Nevada in
January, 2010. She
was
featured in a January 4, 2009
article, "Meet
Miss Cora Rose Wood" by Candy Moulton in
The Fence Post. The warm, in-depth piece tells about Cora's talents and
her cowgirl life.
Read the
Fence Post
article
here.
Read about an earlier
New York Post
article below.
Find some photos of Cora working cows
here in Picture the West.
Cora's recent CD is
Cora's Cowgirl Yodel.
The CD includes
seven songs (including the title cut, which
Cora co-wrote with Paul Harris)
and three poems. See the entire track list
here.
Read some of Cora's poems and more about her
here at the BAR-D and visit her web
site,
www.woodwesternmusic.com, which includes audio and video
clips.
Posted 3/3
In an effort initiated and sponsored by
the
National Day
of the Cowboy
organization, Western songwriters will participate for a
second year in the
Tin Pan South
songwriter festival in Nashville, Tennessee, held March
30-April 3, 2010. The
National Day of the Cowboy organization is sponsoring
songwriters
Joyce Woodson
(California),
Jon Chandler
(Colorado),
Ray Doyle
(California) and
Michael Martin Murphey
(Wisconsin).
National Day of the Cowboy Executive Director
Bethany Braley writes, "Promoting the preservation of America's
Cowboy and Western heritage requires that we continually expand our
audience by reaching out to those who may not be aware of the depth
and significance of our Cowboy culture. Expansion requires that we
insert ourselves into places and events which are not limited to the
relative comfort of the traditional Western circle. Tin Pan South,
the world's largest songwriter festival, is a renowned event which
presents us with a key opportunity to showcase quality contemporary
Western music to a new and broader group of music lovers....
Tin Pan South is dedicated to bringing attention to songwriters and
their songs. It does not promote record companies or any other
aspect of the music business; only the songs and their
creators—Western songwriters deserve to be part of this event..."
The non-profit National Day of the Cowboy
organization seeks funds to help defray the songwriters’ travel
expenses. Read more
here
at the National Day of the Cowboy web site.
The next National Day of the Cowboy takes place July 24, 2010.
Posted 3/3
California writer, poet, and horsewoman
Janice Gilbertson
is featured in a new series of short films, "American Nobodies." You
can view the segment here
at
www.AmericanNobodies.com (click on her image to launch the
segment).
The series is described as "a documentary series
looking at extraordinary things about ordinary Americans." In the
segment about Janice Gilbertson, she is seen with her horses,
comments on her involvement in cowboy poetry, and recites her poem
"If I the Poet," from her book,
Sometimes in the Lucias. (Her poem, "Sometimes in the Lucias," from
that book was a 2009 Western Writers of America
Spur Award finalist.)
Janice Gilbertson's
most recent publication is
a
chapbook, Riding In.
Janice Gilbertson performs at
events across the West, and recently made her third appearance at the Western
Folklife Center's
26th Annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
Read more about Janice Gilbertson and
some of her poetry in our feature here.
[2009 photo by Jeri
L. Dobrowski; see her gallery of western performers and others
here.]
Posted 3/2
After 62 years in Colorado Springs,
Western Horseman
magazine has announced it is relocating to Fort Worth, Texas.
A February 24, 2010
article by Andrew Wineke in Colorado Springs' The Gazette
reports, "Morris Communications, the magazine’s owner, has several
other equine magazines that are based in Fort Worth and Western
Horseman’s publisher is located there....Morris Communications
bought the publication in 2001. The magazine has a national
circulation of about 150,000."
Founded in 1936, the magazine moved to Colorado
Springs in 1948. The article tells that the building that housed the
magazine "included
stables behind the office, where staff and visitors would shelter
their steeds."
Along with its features about horsemanship and
ranching, Western Horseman includes a "Cowboy Culture"
section edited by Jennifer Denison that often includes features of
interest about cowboy poetry, Western music, and associated arts.
Read the article
here.
Posted 3/2
New Mexico cowboy, poet, and musician
Mike Moutoux
has a new article at his web site, "Delivering
a Song," his commentary about performing. The site includes
other articles in his "Cowboy Poetry and Music Notes."
Read one of Mike's poems
here at the BAR-D and
visit his site,
www.enchantingcowboy.com.
Posted 2/25
Nevada writer and poet
Dave P. Fisher writes that he and
his wife, Kyna, a voice actor, "...are now the voice of
Wyoming's Glenrock
Bird. We do a 15-minute broadcast filled with news,
humor, and fun. Each Sunday is a new broadcast. You can listen
here. We also do a four-minute headline broadcast that goes out
Monday mornings on Wyoming Country Station 103.7 KOLT."
Wyoming's Glenrock Bird is edited and
published by Amanda Smith, who also edits and publishes
Open Range
magazine, where Dave P. Fisher is a regular columnist.
Read some of Dave P. Fisher's
poetry
here and visit his web site,
www.davepfisher.com.
Posted 2/25
British
Columbia cowboy and poet
Mike Puhallo
was invited to perform at a number of venues at the Vancouver
Olympics. A February 19, 2010 article
here
in the
Vancouver Sun, "BC Street
in the Richmond O Zone brings the province's communities to
the world,"
quotes Mike about his poetry being "plain and honest" like
"the children of the soil—farmers, ranchers and cowboys—whose work is honest toil."
Mike Puhallo's "Meadow Muffins" are syndicated in a number
of publications and atthe
BCCHS Cowboy
Poets' Page
and at
Cowboylife.com.
Mike is just returned from his first invited
appearance at the Western Folklife
Center's
26th Annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. He was recently named the Male Poet of the Year by the
Academy of Western Artists.
Read some of Mike's poetry and more
about him in our feature here and visit his web
site:
www.mikepuhallo.com.
Posted 2/23
Poet and event organizer
Smoke Wade
and others are mentioned in a February 22, 2010 article about the
4th Annual Cowboy Poetry Hootenanny,
which was held in Mesquite, Nevada on February 20, 2010. See the
article, "Hootenanny Brings Fun To Rainy Afternoon,"
here
in the
Mesquite Local News.
Read some of Smoke Wade's poetry and more about him
here
at CowboyPoetry.com.
[photo by Jeri L. Dobrowski;
see her gallery of western performers and others
here.]
Posted 2/23
The Spring, 2010 issue of
Range
magazine takes on wild horse issues on its cover and in articles by
rancher, poet, and Wyoming State Representative
Sue Wallis; rancher and
poet
Rod McQueary
(he and Wallis are married); retired
Nevada Observer
journalist
Johnny Gunn; South Dakota Windcross Conservancy founder
Lucia Roda; and by editor
C.J. Hadley. Find the
articles on line at
www.rangemagazine.com.
Posted 2/22
A
Columbia Chapter
of the
Western Music Association has been formed by
Clark Crouch,
Bruce and Sue Matley
(Nevada Slim and Cimarron Sue),
Lauralee Northcott,
and others.
In a communication with the group's first newsletter, Clark
Crouch writes:
...The Chapter has been approved by WMA and our first meeting
and performance venue is scheduled for Sunday, June 13, 2010 at
Stevenson, Washington. Come on out for a short business meeting
and performance opportunities. A schedule and more details will be
forthcoming.
Please submit articles, press releases, and other items of
possible interest to our members by email to
R.Editor@crouchnet.com...
Bruce Matley adds:
...anyone who is a member of WMA (or wants to be) may join the
Columbia Chapter, regardless of domicile. We have 40 charter
members, a good start, and intend to have events 4 times per
year....
Find the Chapter's web site at
Columbiawma.org.
Updated 2/24
Popular songwriter, singer, and
musician
Kerry Grombacher
writes about house concerts in a
letter to the editor in the
January 31, 2010 edition of the
New York Times Book Review.
The letter was in
response to a piece about writers' tours. Kerry explains how house
concerts are held throughout the folk music community.
Read the letter
here.
Read some of Kerry's
works in our feature here and visit his
web site, www.kgrombacher.com.
Posted 2/18
Colorado singer and songwriter
Peggy Malone
writes about a Catholic priest in a February 14, 2010 article,
"Father
Val"
at
The Fence Post. Turning 90 this
year (he was ordained 64 years ago), she tells of Father Val, "After retiring as
Pastor of the Good Shepherd Church July 1, 2003, and no wish to sit
idle, he started volunteering at the four surrounding Indian
Reservations: the Salt River Reservation, Gila River Reservation, Ak-Chin
Reservation and the San Lucy Reservation."
Read the entire article
here.
Peggy recently contributed a story and photos about "The Ol' Gully
Ranch" to Picture the West and
Western Memories here at CowboyPoetry.com.
Posted 2/18
Missouri
cowboy poet,
humorist, and writer
Jerry Schleicher's article, "In
Praise of Cattle"
appears in the March/April, 2010 issue of
Grit
magazine.
Jerry comments on his " ode
to the bovine population," writing, "The West, in fact no part of
rural America, would be the same without the 100 million head of cattle
grazing in pastures and cornstalk fields, standing in line at milking parlors,
or fattening in feedlots."
Read the article at the
Grit
web site
here .
Read more about Jerry and find some
of his poetry here at the BAR-D.
Posted 2/18
CowboyLegacy.org
editor
Diane Tribitt
announces two new stories recently
added to the webzine:
A feature about 88-year-old
cowboy, rancher, and poet,
Georgie Sicking, who
is also a National Cowgirl Hall of Fame honoree. The article
includes a recent article from the Elko Daily Free Press,
American Folk's 1992 interview, and a video trailer of her
fabulous DVD Ranchin' & Rhymin'...
An article about the recipients of the 2009
Cowboy Keeper Award
from the National
Day of the Cowboy.
CowboyLegacy.org
is a
site for Western enthusiasts, "bringing you online art and
artists; poetry and poets; Western shopping; editorials;
photography; vet, health and poetry columnists; a cooking and recipe
section; book, CD, and DVD reviews; and,
of course, articles about cowboys and cowgirls. We love telling you
who these folks are, where they are, what they do, and why they do
it."
Visit the site at
www.CowboyLegacy.org.
Posted 2/18
Horsewoman,
cowgirl, poet, writer and editor
Virginia Bennett's
poem, "The Lion," is featured in a new book,
Cougar, Ecology and Conservation
by Maurice Hornocker et al. The book is a scholarly compendium by
twenty-two cougar authorities and Virginia Bennett's poem is the only poem
to appear in the book, across from the title page. Read
more about the book at
Amazon
and at the publisher's web site,
The University of Chicago Press.
"The Lion" was also collected in
Cowboy Poetry Matters
and is included in Virginia Bennett's most recent collection,
In the Company of Horses.
She recites her poetry on each of the first two volumes of
The BAR-D Roundup.
Virginia Bennett was seriously injured five years ago in a
horse accident. Her voice is missed on gathering stages, but she
stays in touch with friends and her books remain available.
See our feature here and visit
www.bennettspurs.com for more
about Virginia Bennett's poetry (and husband Pete's spurs).
Posted 2/17
 Jeff Hildebrandt,
poet and
Director of On Air Promotion for
Encore Westerns,
is featured in the March, 2010 issue of
True West
magazine, in the regular "What
History Has Taught Me" feature on the magazine's back page. He talks
about his work at the Westerns Channel, Western stars, performing his poetry
at the Great Wall of China and Carnegie Hall, and more.
Among others who have been featured in
"What
History Has Taught Me"
are Western songwriters R.W. Hampton,
Brenn Hill, Fred Labour ("Too Slim" of Riders in
the Sky), and Mike Blakely; Western artists Buckeye Blake, Gary Ernest
Smith, and Thom Ross; and writers, historians, gear makers, horsemen, and
others. View many of the past stories
here
on the
True West
web site.
In 2008, Jeff Hildebrandt received the
prestigious Wrangler Award from the
National Cowboy & Western
Heritage Museum, in the Best Factual Narrative category for the 100 Years of John Wayne special he produced for Encore Westerns.
Read
more about him and more of his poetry here
at the BAR-D.
Posted 2/17
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Poets, Musicians and Others with News in Print, on the Web, and Beyond
