Viewers' Comments

"Why the Cowboy Sings is poetry itself."
            Anne Collier, publisher netfamilynews.org



"From the very beginning, you let the people come through without the slightest hint of irony or judgment. I like that you've chosen to show people who love what they do, who've made peace with their pasts or are trying to, people who seem grateful and open-hearted."
            Judith Freeman, writer


"I loved the people, the landscape, the ease of it -- but mostly the rhythm, the flow.  It felt like the land and all that moves on it was spiraling up through the people and coming out in sounds, words and music, coming out in chiming air, in breath.  Sing on, cowboys!  Let there be no end to music, to breathing the world and ourselves in it."
           Sherry Kafka Wagner, arts consultant


"Apropos the video's title, the big theme for me is a classical one -- the Muse.  How is inspiration courted?  The answer for Larry and Glenn is very different: Glenn's existentialism to Larry's enfoldment in the arms of God. Then Henry and Stephanie: Henry channeling like the beat poets (America's own) to Stephanie's careful crafting."
            Dudley Cocke, director Roadside Theater

"An amazing community of people you've helped come together out there! Each cowboy and cowgirl had such a different (all of them intriguing) story to tell. You really captured a very special essence of sincerity and devotion with each of them."
            Julie Shapiro, producer, Third Coast Audio Festival



"Your genuine affection for folks and relationships with them brings all the rest of us closer-- closer to these individuals and to the meaning of this music and to their insights about the land and ways of choosing to live a life."
            Deborah Kodesh, director, Philadelphia Folklore Project


Strong, beautiful, lyrical, evocative, and you have given us miraculous things to see, feel,  and think about--and to appreciate -
            Martha Banyos - writer/artist


"Why the Cowboy Sings gets into the soul of what it means to be a Westerner, even for those of us who have degenerated into that oxymoronic caricature called an urban cowboy."
           Narrvel Hall- urban cowboy

 

 

About the Producers/Directors

Hal Cannon and Taki Telonidis 
Co-producers/directors "Why the Cowboy Sings"

 

Hal Cannon and Taki Telonidis in Nevada
photo courtesy Hal Cannon, October, 2002

Together, Taki Telonidis and Hal Cannon have created more than 40 radio features about life in the American West over the past four years.  Their work airs regularly on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday and on Public Radio International's Marketplace and Savvy Traveler. Their first video documentary, "Why the Cowboy Sings," premiered in January 2002 as a signature event of the Salt Lake City Olympics. It has been awarded a Rocky Mountain Emmy and a Gold Special Jury Award at the Houston Film Festival. Working with the Western Folklife Center, Hal and Taki record the rare and endangered stories of the American West, creating a lasting sound and video archive. Currently, they are supported by the R. Harold Burton Foundation, and the George and Dolores Dor'e Eccles Foundation among others.


   Hal Cannon is the founding Director of the Western Folklife Center and its famous child, the Cowboy Poetry Gathering.  He has published a dozen books and recordings on the folk arts of the West. Awards include a bronze medal at the New York International Radio Festival, three Wrangler Awards from the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, the 1998 Will Rogers Lifetime Achievement Award, the Utah Governors Award in both the Arts and Humanities, and the Botkin Award from the American Folklore Society.


Taki Telonidis has been media producer for the Western Folklife Center since August of 1998. With leaders of the Zuni Indian tribe of New Mexico, he recently produced a CD featuring traditional music and storytelling, the first-ever compilation of its kind. Telonidis came to the West from National Public Radio in Washington DC, where between 1994 and 1998 he was Senior Producer of Weekend All Things Considered.  In 1995 the show was awarded the Overseas Press Club Award for Breaking News. Telonidis has received the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Gold and Silver Awards.

Order Information and More

  You can order Why the Cowboy Sings from Hal Cannon's FieldnotesWest site or from the Western Folklife Center.

Read more about this video that comes from the Western Folklife Center in conjunction with KUED TV.  The KUED site site includes a version of the script of the television production and additional information.

 

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  Released at the Western Folklife Center's 2007 National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, Songs from Why the Cowboy Sings includes the entire soundtrack from their Emmy Award-winning documentary/

The Songs from Why the Cowboy Sings CD includes 16 tracks:

 1. "Prairie in the Sky," Tom Russell (Mary McCaslin)
 2. "La Primera," Larry Schutte (Ian Tyson)
 3. "Ten Pretty Girls," Western Folklife Center String Band (traditional)
 4. "Git Along Little Dogies," Buck Ramsey (traditional)
 5. "Whoopie Ti-Yi-Yo, Get Along Little Dogies," Woodie Guthrie and Cisco Huston (traditional)
 6. "As I Went Walking One Morning for Pleasure," Harry Jackson (traditional)
 7. "A Prisoner for Life," Skip Gorman (traditional)
 8. "There's Music in the Air, Way Out West" Sourdough Slim (Richard Crowder)
 9. "Elko Blues," Ian Tyson
10. "Nighttime in Nevada," Larry Schutte (Pascoe, Dulmage and Clint)
11. "Morning Grub Holler," Harry Jackson

12. "I'm From the Wolf Teeth Mountains," Henry Real Bird

13. "Wyoming Home" Deseret String Band (traditional)

14. "Beautiful Utah," Myron Crandall

15. "Nevada," Riata Brown

16. "Prairie Lullaby," Stephanie Davis

The Songs from Why the Cowboy Sings CD is available for $15 plus postage from the Western Folklife Center Gift Shop.