News
On Monday, June 8, the U.S. Senate
passed a resolution (S. RES. 142)
designating Saturday, July 25, 2009 as the "National
Day of the Cowboy." The resolution was introduced by
by U.S. Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming.
You can read the full text of the resolution and more about its sponsors
and process
here.
The National Day of the Cowboy is
celebrated each year on the 4th Saturday of July and similar
resolutions have passed each year since 2005. A 2009
resolution has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.
RES 322) by U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona.
Legislation passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives and
signed by the President would make the day an official national day of
observance.
See our feature about the National Day of the Cowboy
here.
We have a special Art Spur as a part of
the celebration.
Our nineteenth
piece offered to "spur" the imagination is by popular Tucson photographer Lori Faith Merritt (www.photographybyfaith.com). The photograph
(shown above), called "Heading Out," pictures
cowboy and poet Georgie Sicking and
Minnesota cowboy and rancher Sam Scott.
Poetry submissions
are welcome from all, through
July 13, 2009. Find submission information
here.
[thanks to Jeri Dobrowski
for the Senate resolution news]
Posted 6/10
Celebrated singer and
songwriter Stephanie Davis
has two
new releases, produced in collaboration with Rich O'Brien:
Western Bling
and
Western Bliss.
Well known as an impressive performer as well as a gifted songwriter—Garth
Brooks, Don Edwards,
Trisha Yearwood, Maria
Muldaur, Joey and Rory, Roger Whittaker, Martina McBride, Sam Moore and
others have recorded her work—this time out she gives her inspired take on
some well-chosen standards, and includes one piece of her own.
Western Bliss includes songs such as
"Hittin' the Trail Tonight" (Bruce Kiskaddon's poem
put to music by Western Folklife Center Founding Director Hal Cannon),
"Santa Fe Trail," "Navajo Trail," and "Bronco Buster's Ball."
It also includes one piece by Stephanie Davis,
"Trail's End Theme Song," a song for her
forthcoming radio show. A frequent guest on Public Radio's
A Prairie Home Companion,
its host Garrison Keillor urged her to create her own Trail's End Ranch
Radio show. A show in 2007 at the Western Folklife Center's National
Cowboy Poetry Gathering tried out the concept with great success (watch
and listen to it
here on the
Western Folklife Center's site).
Western Bling has a romantic tilt,
and includes tunes by Bob Wills, George and Ira Gershwin, Cindy Walker, the
Mills Brothers, Bobby Darin, and others.
Both CDs include some of today's top musicians, including
Cindy Cashdollar, Rich O'Brien, Reggie
Reuffer, Clint Strong, and others. And both
CDs have stand-out designs with
art by notable Montana artist Monte Dolack (www.dolack.com).
Read more about Western Bling and
Western Bliss in a feature
here,
which also includes expanded track comments by Stephanie Davis and
commentary by Rich O'Brien and Hal Cannon.
At Stephanie
Davis'
web site, you'll find a
full-length interview about the new releases, track samples, and order
information. Be sure to see her
Ranch News,
the start of a regular feature with humorous news from her Montana Ranch.
[photo by Clark Marten]Posted 5/18
The 36th annual Prix de
West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale, June 12-September 7,
2009, features more than 100 artists. View an on-line catalogue
here.
From the sponsoring National Cowboy &
Western Heritage Museum:
The exhibit will include approximately 300 Western paintings and
sculpture by the finest contemporary Western artists in the nation. Art
seminars, receptions and an awards banquet round out the exhibition's
opening events on June 12-13, 2009. Reservations are required for
opening weekend activities.
The exhibiting artists bring a diversity of styles to this
prestigious art exhibition. Works range from historical pieces that
reflect the early days of the West, to more contemporary and
impressionist works of art. Landscapes, wildlife and illustrative scenes
are always highlighted in the exhibition. The annual exhibition kicks
off with two days of seminars on art-related topics and art
demonstrations and finishes with a sale of all the submitted works.
On June 15, 2009, the museum announced the recipients of this year's
distinguished honors:
Each year at Prix de West,
top artists are awarded distinguished honors selected by the
Prix de West committee, the artists and the buyers. The top
honor is the Prix de West Purchase Award winner. The Museum
Board’s Prix de West Committee faces a difficult decision each
year. From more than 340 works of art, this committee must
select one work to purchase for the Museum’s permanent
collection. The artist receives the purchase price and a cash
award of $5,000. Tom Browning of Bend, Oregon, was
honored for the first time with the prestigious Prix de West
Purchase Award medallion.
Browning’s painting titled
The Dawn Of A New Day makes a significant addition to
the Museum’s priceless acquisitions. He also will be
recognized with a special tile in the Edward L. Gaylord
Exhibition Wing hallway, and his winning work will take its
rightful place in the William S. and Ann Atherton Art of the
American West Gallery.
The Dawn Of A New Day,
priced at $18,500 is an oil painting of a frontier woman
peering out the window of her home with morning sunshine
streaming in. Browning began painting full time in 1972, sand
2009 marks his fourth Prix de West invitation. While his
material is not limited to Western subjects, he has repeatedly
returned to painting the West, a subject he knows and loves.
There were six other
distinguished honors awarded during the formal banquet on
Saturday night. Each award includes a gold medallion and a
cash award of $3,000.
The
Robert Lougheed Award is chosen by the Prix de West artists for
their favorite display of three or more works in the show and is
sponsored by the Robert S. and Grayce B. Kerr Foundation;
Bill Anton of Prescott, Arizona,
is the winner. His works for this award included Easy
Does It, Branding at Red Bluff, Fixin’ A Flat, and
Not On Your Life.
The Lougheed Award was not the only recognition Anton
received. He was presented the Express Ranches Great American
Cowboy Award given to the artist who exhibits the best cowboy
subject matter. Anton’s award-winning work is Easy Does It,
a 30” x 30” oil on linen, depicting a cowboy’s anxious
ride down a snowy slope with pack horse in tow.
The James Earle Fraser Sculpture Award is an award given to an
artist for exceptional achievement in sculpture. John
Coleman of Prescott, Arizona, was the recipient of this
award for his sculpture 1876, Gall—Sitting Bull—Crazy
Horse. This sculpture depicts those considered to be some
of the most important principals involved in the battle of the
Little Bighorn.
Coleman’s award-winning sculpture also resonated with buyers
and earned him a second award on the night, the Nona Jean
Hulsey Rumsey Buyers’ Choice Award. Named for longtime Museum
patron Nona Jean Hulsey Rumsey in honor of her many years of
dedication to the Museum, the award is voted on by buyers
throughout the weekend. It is for the work they best admire
and the piece they feel exemplifies the mission of the Museum.
Frederic Remington was both a sculptor and a painter, but it
is for his perfection in the art of painting that the Museum
established the Frederic Remington Painting Award. This award
was selected for the one work in the show with exceptional
artistic merit. Craig Tennant of Golden, Colorado, was
selected for his work of Heading Home. This 40” x 60”
oil on linen painting is a view of a mountain man paddling his
canoe after a successful elk hunt. In 2008, Tennant received
the Prix de West Nona Jean Hulsey Rumsey Buyers’ Choice Award.
The Major General and Mrs. Don D. Pittman Wildlife Art Award
is given for exceptional artistic merit for a wildlife
painting or sculpture. The artist has to have the ability to
watch and wait to capture the essence of the wildlife that it
portrays. First-time Prix de West artist Kyle Sims of
Belgrade, Montana, captured the honor for Summer Rumble,
a 40” x 60” oil. Sims says he set out to transfer the
emotion of the annual bison rut. The energy and excitement of
the scene captured Museum-goers throughout opening weekend.
Read more about the event
at the National Cowboy &
Western Heritage Museum web site.
[image: "Long Days, Short Pay" Oil On Painting, 24" x 36",
by Tim Cox]
Updated 6/15
The National Cowboy &
Western Heritage Museum announces the July 24, 2009 opening of a
new exhibit, “Not Just a Housewife: The Changing Roles of Women in the
West.” From the announcement:
Organized by the Museum’s comprehensive collections from the Donald
C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Research Center, the exhibit examines the
lives of 14 women who lived during the 1890s through the 1920s. It was a
period when most women were expected to uphold the Victorian ways of
life as a housewife and mother. Some women, however, managed to carve
out careers, often in very nontraditional manners.
Opening July 24, “Not Just a Housewife” delves into three categories:
early Western women, traditional Western families and nontraditional
Western women. Examples of the women who are spotlighted include
Oklahoma artist Augusta Metcalfe, politician Jeanette Rankin, who was
elected to the United States Congress in 1916, Rodeo Hall of Fame
bulldogger Fox Hastings and professional gambler Alice Ivers.
Better known as “Poker Alice,” Ivers was widowed three times and
developed her career out of a sheer need to support herself. The exhibit
points out that she had harbored a true passion for her vocation. She
said, “I’d rather play poker with five or six experts than to eat.”
Congresswoman Rankin said, “Men and women are like right and left hands.
It doesn’t make sense not to use both.”
Clearly there were women around the turn of the 20th century that bucked
tradition. Such women often met praise or scorn, but without their
courage, women of today would face a different reality.
Museum visitors will find “Not Just a Housewife” located inside the
Osborn Photography Studio inside the popular 1900s cattle town,
Prosperity Junction. The exhibit continues through January 10, 2010. A
companion virtual exhibit is under development for the Museum’s web
site. It is tentatively scheduled to be available online by August 1 at
www.nationalcowboymuseum.org.
Read more about the exhibit
here at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum web site and
find the announcement
here.
[image: Main Street of Prosperity Junction, courtesy of
the National Cowboy &
Western Heritage Museum ]
Posted 6/1
Red Rock Rondo
tells the stories of the people and the place of Utah's Zion Canyon
through a cycle of songs composed by Phillip Bimstein and a film
produced by Hal Cannon and Taki Telonidis for the Western
Folklife Center. Red Rock Rondo—the public television
special, the DVD, and the music CD—are all signature projects of the
Zion
National Park's 2009 Centennial, "A Century of Sanctuary."
Our feature
here includes a
description of the projects, a report from Jerry
Brooks about the May 2009 world premiere, and includes
Jeri Dobrowski's review of the music CD.
The music
CD, Red Rock Rondo: Zion Canyon Song
Cycle web site, www.redrockrondo.com, includes the lyrics and the stories behind the
songs, and information about the composer, Phillip Bimstein, and the other
musicians. The site also includes audio links and other resources.
The Red Rock Rondo film airs Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 8:00
pm on Salt Lake City, Utah's KUED HD Channel 7.1. Find more information
here at the KUED web site. Read more about the
Red Rock Rondo
DVD and film (and watch a video preview)
here at the Western Folklife Center web site.
Updated 6/1
American Cowboy
magazine celebrates its 15th year of publication with the June/July, 2009
issue.
The anniversary
issue includes Utah poet and writer
Rod Miller's
extensive article, “The Legends: The Ten Greatest Cowboy Figures of All
Time.” The “Who’s Next?” part of the article, about those who are filling
the shoes of the featured legends, includes mention of
Baxter Black,
Juni Fisher,
Brenn Hill,
DW Groethe,
Dave Stamey,
Wylie Gustafson,
and the late
Joelle Smith.
The
June/July issue also includes editor Jesse Mullins, Jr.'s
"The Road We've Traveled and the Way Ahead; American Cowboy
at Fifteen"; David Wolfe's profile of Devon Dawson
of The Texas Trailhands;
Mark Bedor's review of Wylie & the
Wild West's
Hang-n-Rattle
CD; Jo Baeza's review of Wallace
McRae's new book of stories,
Stick Horses and Other Stories of Ranch Life;
Mark Bedor's review of Tom Russell and Gretchen Peters'
One to the Heart, One to the Head
CD; Caroline Johnson's review of Linda Hussa's
book, The Family Ranch: Land, Children, and
Tradition in the American West;
Kendra Santos' article about Lane Frost;
and other feature articles and regular columns.
Find more
at the American Cowboy
web site,
which includes web-exclusive features.
Posted 5/26
The May-June, 2009 issue of I.M.
Cowgirl magazine, featuring "the life of the
Western woman," includes the poetry of California's
Janice Gilbertson ("Maybe it's Your Callin'")
and Colorado's Jane Morton ("Mom's Job").
The current
issue's cover story,
by Senior Executive Editor, Minnesota rancher and poet
Diane Tribitt, features
artist and Patty Eckman
.
Other feature articles include Mary Maturi's profile of Betty
Rodgers, the wife of Will Rogers;
Rhonda Sedgwick Stearns'
profile of "Beldora Haythorn, Sandhills Ranchwoman"; and Donna
Wooten's profile of Shannon Kerr, horse breeder, trainer, and barrel
racing champion.
There are also introductions to the "working crew" of the magazine.
Other feature articles have topics as diverse as
Western weddings and
castrating calves.
Regular departments include
Rhonda Sedgwick Stearns'
"Gatherin'
Strays" column; Rick Huff's
"Best of the West"
Western music and poetry reviews; Jan Swan Wood's "Outtagrass
Cattle Company" cartoons and humorous columns;
B. J. Rickard's "Stall 13" horse
care column; Janine Wilder's "Trail's Best" trail-riding
column; veterinary, cooking, and gardening features; and more.
See our feature about
I.M. Cowgirl here and
visit the
I.M. Cowgirl
web site for on-line
features and more.
Posted 5/11
The Spring, 2009 issue of
Persimmon Hill, the
National
Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum's
award-winning journal on the West, offers a preview of the
Prix de West invitational art exhibit. The Prix de West, which
will include over 300 Western paintings and sculpture by many of today's
top contemporary Western artists, takes place June 12-September 7, 2009.
The magazine also includes a many-page spread about the
Western Heritage Awards, known as the
Wrangler
awards, for the sculptures presented to each winner. Among this year's
Wrangler recipients recognized at an April, 2009 gala event were
Juni Fisher
for
Gone for Colorado
(Traditional Western Album),
produced by
Juni Fisher and Rich O’Brien
(his thirteenth Wrangler);John Dofflemyer
for
Poems from Dry Creek (Poetry
Book);
and
Red Steagall'for
A Cowboy’s Special Christmas (Original
Composition). Red Steagall, who has received nine Wranglers,
was inducted in the Museum's Hall of Great Westerners in 2003.The Spring issue also has a focus on Oregon, with articles about
ranches, ranchers, artists, artisans, and more.
Find more information about the quarterly Persimmon Hill
here
at the
National
Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum web site.
Posted 5/4
The eighth annual Cowboy Poetry Week was
celebrated across the U.S. and Canada, April 19-25, 2009.
CowboyPoetry.com
initiated Cowboy Poetry Week, and for the
celebration's second year, in April 2003, the United
States Senate passed a resolution, with unanimous approval, recognizing Cowboy
Poetry Week. Twenty-two
states’ governors and other officials have recognized Cowboy Poetry Week
since, and many activities take place in communities across the West and beyond.
The Rural Library Project is a
vital part of Cowboy Poetry Week. Through the project, CowboyPoetry.com
(a project of the Center for Western and Cowboy
Poetry) furnishes hundreds of rural libraries with the year's
Cowboy Poetry Week original Western art poster
and the latest edition of The BAR-D Roundup
CD for the libraries' collections.
This year's poster features art by
Bob Coronato of Hulett, Wyoming. Our
Art Spur project invited poets to be
inspired by the image, and selected poems are posted
here. (Posters are not for sale, but
are available to Center supporters.)
The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Four
(2009) is the fourth annual CD collection of classic and contemporary
cowboy poetry. It includes a vintage recording of
Gail Gardner (1892-1988)
reciting his legendary poem, "The Sierry Petes," and 27 additional
tracks (and a public service announcement created and delivered by
Baxter Black). Andy
Nelson works tirelessly to co-produce the CD.
Joe Baker distributes the CD to his
network of nearly 200 Western radio shows.
Western radio shows give
airplay to The BAR-D Roundup throughout the year and some
have special Cowboy Poetry Week shows which are available for listening
on-demand on the web. (see a news item about those shows
here, which include mention of
Clear Out West,
Calling All Cowboys, Backforty
Bunkhouse, and Ralph's Back
Porch).
North Dakota radio broadcaster
Al
Gustin, known widely throughout the region as the "dean" of farm
broadcasting, marked the week with interviews with poets on his shows on KBMR and
KFYR, which
are heard throughout the day.
Cathy Witten
(www.rockinwproductions.com)
created spots from
The BAR-D Roundup
that were featured on
KJDL 105.3 FM
and
NewsRadio 1420
in Lubbock, Texas.
Cowboy Poetry Week has spawned dozens of events, and
many of the 2009 events are listed in our
events calendar and in the Cowboy Poetry Week news
here. The events range from library
and community celebrations, commercial events, to gatherings. For
example, the Cowboy Poets
of Utah hold their annual Heritage Dinner during Cowboy Poetry
Week. This year, 70 poets and others attended the event. In Safford,
Arizona, at the Safford
City-Graham County Library,
over 500 people attended a fourth annual event that celebrated Cowboy
Poetry Week and National Library Week. The monthly
Heritage of the American West
show, produced by Francie Ganje
and Jim Thompson,
devoted its April show to Cowboy Poetry Week (for the fourth year) and
featured Minnesota rancher and poet
Diane Tribitt.
The show, which takes place at the High Plains Western Heritage Center
in Spearfish, South Dakota, has a studio audience and is simulcast on
area radio stations and on the internet. Read about many other events
and exhibits here.
Many poets, librarians, journalists, radio hosts, gathering organizers,
and others are responsible for the growth of Cowboy Poetry Week. Just a
few examples: Sue and Bruce Matley (Nevada Slim and Cimarron
Sue;www.nevadaslim.com)
organized a number of events in their region in 2008, and this year
several of those events were expanded. Rex
Rideout (www.timetravelmusic.com)
helped start several library events in and around Conifer and Gunnison,
Colorado, and participated in four events in 2009.
Karen Neurohr, Assessment Librarian at
the
Oklahoma State University Library
in Stillwater has put on events in collaboration with the
OSU Rodeo Team and Booster Club and hosted an Oklahoma
Cowboy Poetry and Songs Event. She's spread the word among
rural librarians and creates an annual library display, which she has
also presented at the Oklahoma Library Association conference. Photojournalist Jeri
Dobrowski spreads the word in
her Cowboy Jam Session
column, which catches the essence and importance of Cowboy Poetry Week
activities. The column appears at CowboyPoetry.com and a number of other
publications, including the
Tri-State Livestock News,
which offered other generous news coverage about Cowboy Poetry Week.
Read about many others' activities here.
Over two dozen poets and others contacted their governors and other
officials for Cowboy Poetry Week proclamations and recognition, and now
twenty-two states' officials have recognized the celebration. Among the
new states in 2009: the Tennessee legislature passed a joint resolution
recognizing Cowboy Poetry Week (through the efforts of
Woody Woodruff) and Arkansas governor Mike
Beebe signed a Cowboy Poetry Week resolution (through the efforts of
Paul Harris). Find information about
other states' recognition here.
Find news of many activities and events for Cowboy Poetry Week 2009
here. We'll be adding additional news
and reports in coming days.
In 2010, Cowboy Poetry Week
will be celebrated April 18-25. It's not too early to start planning
events and activities. Find information
here about the many ways to get involved.
Everything that the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry
does to make Cowboy Poetry Week happen, including the annual Western art
poster, the annual edition of The BAR-D Roundup, the Rural
Library Project, information cards, the maintenance of CowboyPoetry.com,
and more is made possible by the generous
supporters of CowboyPoetry.com.
Enormous thanks to all who had a part in the 2009 Cowboy Poetry Week celebration.
Posted 4/27
The 11th annual Monterey
Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival (December 11-13, 2009) has
selected the work of noted California artist Jack Swanson for its
2009 gathering poster.A member of the
Cowboy Artists of America,
Jack Swanson's bio at their site tells that he worked with the last of
the great vaqueros in the 1940s, and later "broke and sold wild horses
in Oregon, working with the top buckaroos in the northwest cow country."
Swanson lives on a California ranch that he built, and has "...the only
studio known to have an indoor stall so that the artist can paint horses
from life." Read more
here at the Cowboy Artists of America site.
See our feature about the Monterey gathering
here.
Read more about the 11th annual Monterey Cowboy Poetry &
Music Festival, the performers (who include
Don Edwards,
Sons of the San Joaquin, the
Gillette Brothers,
Dennis Gaines,
Doris Daley,
Pat Richardson,
Jess Howard,
Waddie Mitchell,
and others) here
in our events news and visit the
Monterey Cowboy Poetry & Music
Festival web site.Posted 4/22
The
Autry
National Center's
Southwest Museum of the American Indian "echoes the sounds of
the past and present with an extraordinary exhibition in May
highlighting its collection of historic wax cylinder
recordings of folksingers from the turn the 20th century."
Among the exhibits is "Sounds From the Circle: Wax Cylinder
Recordings of Charles Fletcher Lummis," May 9–July 5, 2009,
which features "cylinders, equipment, musical transcriptions,
and photographs of the numerous California Hispanic
folksingers from the turn of the 20th century that are held in
the Braun Research Library Sound Archives."
Charles Fletcher Lummis (1859-1928) was a poet, writer,
photographer, editor, Indian rights activist, and a friend of
writers and poets Sharlot Hall,
Eugene Manlove Rhodes, Henry Herbert
Knibbs, and others. His daughter,
Turbesé Lummis Fiske, lived with Henry Herbert Knibbs
and they co-wrote a novel,
The Man Of the Whispering Spurs.
The Autry National Center's web
site tells that "The Southwest Museum of the American Indian,
the oldest museum in Los Angeles, was founded by Charles
Fletcher Lummis."
Find more about Lummis at
www.charleslummis.com,
created by Mark Thompson, whose 2001 biography of Lummis,
American Character,
received the Western Writers of America Spur Award.
Find more information about the
Southwest Museum exhibit at the
Autry
National Center web site.
[photo courtesy of the Southwest Museum]
Posted 4/13
The Spring, 2009 issue of The Western Way magazine, the official
publication of the Western
Music Association (WMA), includes a cover story about top poet
Waddie Mitchell by editor
Don Cusic. Don Cusic also contributes a
report from the recent 25th Annual National Cowboy Poetry
Gathering and an article, "The Meaning of Elko."
Other articles include
a
column from CowboyPoetry.com, Before the
Song, this time featuring
a
collaboration between Jean Prescott and
Yvonne Hollenbeck
("Dining Out") and accompanied by a listing of recent cowboy poetry
releases; Rick Huff's reviews of Western music
and cowboy poetry books and recordings;
William Merritt's
report
from the 17th Annual Cochise Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering;
Jay Kyle Petersen's
article, "Song Registration and Royalties"; and more.
The
Western Way includes Western playlists compiled by
Marvin O'Dell from reports by Western DJ's,
for cowboy poetry, Western swing, and Cowboy/Western music.
The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Three (2008) from CowboyPoetry.com
is cited as the number one cowboy poetry CD (for the third consecutive
quarter); the top Cowboy/Western
CD is The Silver Screen Cowboy Project (various artists); and the top
Western Swing
Album is This is Billy Duncan, Vol. 1, by Billy
Mata.
The magazine also includes O. J. Sikes'
regular column and his reviews of Western music recordings and
books of historical interest; Rick Huff's
Western Air, which
focuses on Western radio;
and more
features, articles, and display advertising.
The Western Way
is a benefit of WMA membership and is available to all for reading on line, at the
WMA web site.
Subscriptions are also available for non-members, and it is sold at
retail outlets.
Posted 4/2
News continued from page 1
