Archive for January, 2010

Westerners: a CD review

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

Westerners Cover

Westerners

We’ve just previewed Westerners, a newly released album of western and cowboy music by Nevada Slim and Cimarron Sue (Bruce and Sue Matley of Prescott, Washington). They offer some of their own compositions as well as a generous touch of traditional songs for a total of seventeen tracks.

Their selection of music and their unique renditions make it easy to understand why they are in such great demand on the Northwestern fair circuit, serving up nearly 175 performances in 2009. Fans will love this album which concludes with a thirty-eight second flashback to years of yore as 4-year-old Slim sings his own composition, “Buddy and Me,” and new listeners will certainly become fans.

My own bias leans toward “Border Affair” which is a musical rendition of a poem by a 1940 acquaintance of mine, Charles “Badger” Clark, the classic cowboy poet who was then Poet Laureate of South Dakota. Then, too, my wife and I especially enjoyed “Don’t Fence Me In” which was our junior class theme song in 1944-45. Great stuff!

The tracks are: I Ride the Range the Modern Way, Show Me Mister, Cattle Call, The Cowboy That Made Me Blue, They Call The Wind Mariah, Common Wisdom, Border Affair (Spanish is the Loving Tongue), Don’t Fence Me In, Coyotes, Home to You, The West, I’ve Got Spurs, Waitin’ For Ice Cream, The Ranch That I Can’t See, Happy Trails, and Buddy and Me

The album can be previewed and purchased at CD Baby and there’s more about this dynamic western duo on their website.

Columbia River Gathering

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

I’ve just been confirmed for appearances at the 7th Annual Columbia River Cowboy Gathering & Music Festival in Kennewick, WA on April 9 through 11.

There’s quite a lineup of other talent: Stonewall Jackson, Jimmy Fortune, Sourdough Slim, Sage Keifer, Smoke Wade, B. J. Smith, Sam Deleeuw, Zac Grooms, Joshua Crosby, Shiloh Sharrard, Rod Erikson, Bodie Dominguez, and Coyote Joe Sarton.

Book Previews Available

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

Previews of my western and cowboy poetry book contents are now available on the web at Google Books.

The books are: Where Horses Reign; Sun, Sand & Soapweed; Western Images; and Views from the Saddle. Western Images was the 2008 winner of the Will Rogers Medallion Award for Cowboy Poetry.