The Western Music Association
(WMA) celebrates its twentieth annual Western Music Festival
(and Cowboy Poetry Gathering)
November 20-23, 2008 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
From a November 4 announcement:
The Western Music Association’s twentieth anniversary edition of
its International Western Music Festival (and Cowboy Poetry
Gathering) will be held in Albuquerque November 20th through noon
on the 23rd. This marks the fifth consecutive year the event has been
held in the Duke City and the second at the Albuquerque Marriott Hotel
& Convention Center, Louisiana at I-40.
As opposed to “Country,” Western music basically deals with the life,
loves, lore and locale of the cowboy and cowgirl. The WMA began as an
“appreciation club” for the Sons Of The Pioneers, but once it was
discovered how many artists were creating and performing new music in
the Western genre, the focus of the organization broadened. This
year’s festival will showcase more than eighty Western music acts and
cowboy poets from across the U.S, Canada and England.
Thursday’s activities include workshops for performers, fans and
youth; a huge Western music mercantile, and an evening concert
featuring Wylie & the Wild West from
Washington state. Wylie Gustafson’s voice is especially famous
worldwide for two simple yodeled syllables online: “Ya-HOO!!” Three
simultaneous daytime stages on Friday and Saturday are free to the
public and tickets for all evening events and festival packages are
for sale at the door.
Those interested can get an advance look on Saturday, November 15 at
the Art Gallery 66 Gallery (artgallery66.net)
in Bernalillo as the New Mexico WMA chapter unveils its new “Happy
Trails Theater” performance stage. Bring your own chair and the
music, barbecue and fun starts at noon and will feature Academy Of
Western Artists Female Vocalist of the Year Kip Calahan, the
current AWA Male Vocalist of the Year Jim Jones, the award
winning “Cowboy Swing” group Open Range from Montana, New
Mexico’s popular Syd Masters & The Swing Riders and a special
appearance by California performer Keeter Stuart, nephew of the
legendary Stan “Ghost Riders In The Sky” Jones.
See our feature here about the WMA and this
year's award finalists. Visit the
Western Music Association web
site for more information.
Posted 11/5
Randy Williams,
Curator of the University of Southern Utah's
Fife Folklore Archives'
Special Collections & Archives, hosts the Archives' new
FolkBistro
folklore podcasts.
Randy comments, "At present, we have nine casts loaded, including a
fascinating three-part interview with Peggy Seeger, an informative
presentation/performance by Barre Toelken on folksongs (from a Fife
Conference) and a fun interview with Guha Shankar. We plan to add many more in
the future, including podcasts from USU folklore students."
Each year the
Fife
Folklife Archives brings many books from their Cowboy Poetry
Library Collection to the Western
Folklife Center's National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada.
There, the books—which range from valuable classics to new, self-published chapbooks—are available for browsing.
The Fife Folklore Archives welcomes poets' donations of their books and
recordings. Read more in our feature
here.
Listen to the
FolkBistro
podcasts
here.
[Fife Folklore Archives Curator
Randy
Williams (left) and patron at Elko, 2005; photo by
Jeri Dobrowski]
Posted 11/3
Top South
Dakota poet
Yvonne Hollenbeck
is featured in the Autumn, 2008 issue of Persimmon Hill
magazine, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum's award-winning journal on the
West. The article, "Yvonne Hollenbeck, Poetry and Song Rooted in South
Dakota," is written by Jeri Dobrowski and
accompanied by her photos (and one photo by Paulette Tcherkassky). The profile
tells about Yvonne Hollenbeck's writing, her accomplishments, awards,
collaborations with songwriters (including Jean
Prescott and Kip Calahan), and there are stories about her her ranching
life.
Posted 10/28
The Fall, 2008 issue of The Western Way magazine, the official
publication of the Western
Music Association (WMA), includes an in-depth cover feature story by
editor
Don Cusic
about Wylie Gustafson
of Wylie & the Wild West.
The wide-ranging article includes Wylie's comments on being raised on a
ranch and on his current ranching life ("When I was 18, I'd had enough
of ranch life....but after a few years away I wanted to get back to it);
his early music influences and career; thoughts about making a living as
a musician; comments on "cowboy music" ("I still don't know what cowboy
music is because the cowboys I hang out with—hard core cowboys—listen
to stuff all over the map...To define cowboy music today is hard to do.
As a cowboy band I'm bound to the traditions and respect for where it
came from...."); and many other insightful observations.
Other articles include
a
column from CowboyPoetry.com, Before the
Song, this time featuring
a
collaboration between Doris
Daley and
Eli Barsi ("Shades of
the West") and accompanied by a listing of recent cowboy poetry
releases; Ralph Estes'
article about top cowboy singer and songwriter Dave
Stamey; Vernell Hackett's profile of
popular cowboy singer and songwriter
Dan Roberts;
articles about Western Music Hall of Fame inductees (Lloyd Perryman,
Dale Warren,
Bing Crosby,
and Ian Tyson);
Rick Huff's
Western Air column, this
issue about the Ralph's Back Porch radio show;
Rick Huff's reviews of Western music
and cowboy poetry books and recordings, including new releases from
Janice Gilbertson,
Curly Musgrave
&
Belinda Gail,
the
Tumbling Tumbleweeds, Al Mehl,
Liz Masterson,
Mag Mawhinney,
and others.
The
Western Way includes Western playlists, compiled from reports by
Western DJ's, for cowboy poetry, Western swing, and Cowboy/Western
music. For the top cowboy poetry CD, the 2006, 2007, and 2008 volumes of
The BAR-D Roundup from CowboyPoetry.com
are cited as number one, two and three; the top Cowboy/Western
CD is The Tumbling Tumbleweeds; and the top
Western Swing
Album is Swing, by Carolyn Martin.
The magazine also includes Juni Fisher's article,
"The 'Road Ready' Check List";
O. J. Sikes'
regular column and his reviews of Western music recordings and
books of historical interest; comprehensive
information about the 20th Annual Western Music Association Festival
(November 20-23, 2008, Albuquerque, New Mexico); 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 10/6
The
Western Writers of America
are accepting submissions for their respected
Spur Awards.
The Spur Awards have been given annually since 1953, recognizing "distinguished
writing about the American West."
In 2008, two new categories were introduced: Best Western Poem and
Best Western Song.
The winners and finalists in those categories for 2008 were:
Best Western Poem
Winner: "El Corrido de Antonio Beltran," by
John Duncklee
Finalist: "The White Dove," by Jane Candia Coleman
Finalist: "Minneola, Kansas, 1916," by
Red Shuttleworth
Best Western Song
Winner: "The Last Wild White Buffalo,"
by Mike Blakely
Finalist: "Where Horses are Heroes," by
Wylie
Gustafson
Finalist: "Keepin' Your Head Above the Water," by
Devon Dawson
Additional categories include
Best Western Short Novel,
Best Western Long Novel,
Best Original Mass Market Paperback,
Best First Novel,
Best Western Nonfiction Biography,
Best Western Nonfiction Historical,
Best Western Nonfiction Contemporary,
Best Western Drama,
Best Western Documentary, and other categories.
Read about the awards and find submission guidelines and applications
here at the
Western Writers of America web
site.
[Thanks to Laurie Wood for the news]
Posted 10/23
The University of Oklahoma Press has published
A Place of Refuge; Maynard Dixon's Arizona,
by Thomas Brent Smith with an essay by Dixon expert and
biographer Donald Hagerty. The book showcases Maynard Dixon's
(1875-1946) Arizona
subjects. The Western modernist painter first traveled to
Arizona in 1900 "to absorb what he he believed was a vanishing
West."
The book includes more than 100 reproductions of works from
1897 through 1946, in a chronological portfolio.
Donald Hagerty's biographical
essay, "Sky and Sandstone; Maynard Dixon's Arizona Years,"
sets the works in the context of Dixon's life. He writes,
"Over a half century of intense productivity, Dixon saw the
closing of the western frontier, the 'flickering out of old
campfires,' as he lamented it, and the arrival of a West newly
defined by the automobile. He straddled an era of seismic
change in American art...Through it all, his work was founded
in a quest for the essence of the western spirit."
Thomas Brent Smith interprets
Maynard's work in its historical and artistic context,
including comparative commentary on the works of other Western
artists. A number of Frederic Remington images are included
and of particular interest is Remington's letter to a
16-year-old Dixon, filled with advice for the artist.
Find more information about
the book
here
at the University of Oklahoma Press site.
An accompanying exhibit, "A
Place of Refuge; Maynard Dixon's Arizona," is at the
Tucson Museum of Art through February 15, 2009. The author
Thomas Brent Smith is the museum's Curator of Art.
Posted 10/20
The newest
Ranch Rhymes: Cowboy Poetry and Music from the Western Folklife Center
Archives podcast focuses on the
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. The program is described:
As we continue to explore poems and music inspired by the
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, this week on our
Ranch Rhymes podcast, we feature a Chuck Powell recitation of
a poem by Randy Hamill, "What is a Cowboy Poet?" followed by
John Hollis' original song, "Elko Nights," both recorded in
Elko at the 1999 National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
Listen to the program
here.
The Ranch Rhymes
recordings, presented by Ross Fuqua, are drawn mostly from the Western Folklife
Center Archives. The broadcasts are available on demand for listening on
the web or for downloading as podcasts.
Other recent Ranch
Rhymes programs feature
legendary musician and
music historian Glenn Orhlin;
top cowboy poet
Baxter Black;
Arizona cowboy, singer and songwriter
Gail Steiger
and Wyoming rancher and poet
Kent Stockton; cowboy singer and songwriter
Dave Stamey and 16-year old phenomenon Adrian
Utah; reciter
Jerry Brooks; North Dakota rancher and poet
Rodney Nelson; South Dakota ranch wife
and poet
Yvonne Hollenbeck; master reciter and respected
Randy Rieman; California rancher and poet
John Dofflemyer; Montana rancher, writer and poet
Wallace McRae;
respected cowboy troubadour and music historian
Don Edwards; Australian bush poet Milton
Taylor and Washington poet Dick Warwick; Utah poet Jo
Lynne Kirkwood; Montana ranch hand, singer, songwriter, and poet
DW Groethe; the late cowboy, poet, and
reciter Sunny Hancock; and others.
Find all of the
Ranch
Rhymes programs
here at the Western Folklife Center web site.
Posted 10/13
I.M. Cowgirl
magazine's first anniversary issue (November/December 2008) celebrates
"the life of the Western woman," with features and articles by a variety
of writers and with an appeal to a broad audience. The issue includes
poetry by Jo Lynne Kirkwood,
illustrated by Chanda Snook's
photography; a feature article by Senior Executive Editor
Diane Tribitt
about cowgirl, rancher, educator, team roper, horsewoman, community
organizer and more, Elladean Hays Bittner;
Rhonda Sedgwick Stearns'
"Gatherin' Strays" column;
rancher Willard Hollopeter's
column; horseman B.J. Rickard's
horse-care column; CuChullaine O'Reilly's
historical look at horsewomen; Western music reviews by
Rick Huff;
Jan Swan Wood's humor column
and her "Outtagas Cattle Company" cartoon; and more.
The article about Elladean Hays Bittner
(who died, at age 90, soon after she was interviewed) is the first of a
planned series of articles about ranch women. Editor Diane Tribitt,
cowboy (the term she prefers) and poet
Georgie Sicking,
and rancher Lola Chianteretto
traveled throughout desert mountain ranches in Arizona, interviewing
female ranchers in the summer of 2008.
Visit the
I.M. Cowgirl
web site for on-line
features and more.
Posted 10/3
RATTLE
,
a widely-read poetry journal, "celebrates the poetry of the
Western range" in its forthcoming December, 2008 issue, with work
by 24 cowboy and Western poets. Among those included are
J.V. Brummels,
Thea Gavin,
D.W. Groethe,
Al "Doc" Mehl,
Rod Miller,
Red Shuttleworth,
Jeff Streeby,
Larry D. Thomas,
and Paul Zarzyski.
The issue also includes interviews with three-term Poet Laureate
Robert Pinsky and Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha
Trethewey, 60 pages of open poetry, and the 11 winning poems
from the 2008 Rattle Poetry Prize.
A release party for the cowboy and Western poetry issue, open to
the public, will be held January 17, 2009 in Santa Monica,
California. Read more about the event
here and read more about the
cowboy and Western poetry
issue
here
at the RATTLE web site.
RATTLE publishes print issues each June and December, with
200 pages of poetry and essays, plus two interviews with
contemporary poets. Electronic supplements in March and September
are available as free PDF downloads, and there is a free
e-newsletter. The
RATTLE web site
includes poetry, news and reviews.
Posted 9/24
Music historian and folk singer
Katie Lee
(