Last week the nation’s greatest celebration of the American West took place in Elko, Nevada: the 28th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.
This shindig, produced by the Western Folklife Center, has both kinds of music—country and western. It is more country than anything Nashvegas will come out with, and more western than most any pro rodeo you’ll happen to see.
This year’s bill included luminaries like large-animal veterinarian Baxter Black…
They had folk heroes Ian Tyson and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Martha Scanlan and the always smokin’ hot Hot Club of Cowtown, not to mention genuine cowpokes Wallace McRae, Waddie Mitchell, and Paul Zarzyski and a herd more. Oh, and a guitar player you might have heard of by the name of Michael Martin Murphey. Here’s MMM a couple years ago at the Palace Theater in Luverne (where city slicker Rick Santorum spoke last week):
Did I mention Montanans Paul Zarzyski and Wally McRae?
Someday, cowpokes, I’ll make the migration, out to the high desert of Nevada some cold winter’s January. Until then, close the gate behind ya.
#NowPlaying Various Artists – Elko on #Spotify http://open.spotify.com/album/6F366Rak2f62dG7zlvLHM9
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