The Poets

C O W B O Y P O E T S O N T H E I N T E R N E T

Can't make it to Elko? Check out this schedule of events around the country.

T H E P O E T S

Ever since the early days, the trail drives after the Civil War, cowboys have been written and spoken about, their images sketched and painted, their trappings braided and sewn. But no historical narratives adequately explain the chemistry that bonded an incredibly diverse lot of men, in the wilderness, and forced them to rely on each other and their animals during long and trying odysseys.

From this experience came an astonishing amalgam of life that would identify Americans forever.

It was a jazz of Irish storytelling, Scottish seafaring and cattle tending, Moorish and Spanish horsemanship, European cavalry traditions, African improvisation, and Native American experience, if also oppression. All the old ingredients can be heard and seen in the cowboying way of life even today.

Meet three contemporary artists who are being featured at the 1997 Cowboy Poetry Gathering. This year's Gathering explores Canadian ranching traditions. Each of these artists has a unique voice that gets to the heart of ranch life from north of the border.

Bud McKague has raised cattle, been on the rodeo circuits and operated his own sawmill business. Over the years he has memorized an impressive repertoire of cowboy poetry, ranging from the classics to contemporary, with a few of his own thrown in for good measure. at the prompting of his wife, he's been sharing his talents with audiences and gatherings and other events since 1992. He lives in Peachland, British Columbia.

Terri Mason lives with her husband and protagonist of many of her poems, Rusty, in Airdrie, Alberta, where they keep busy with ranching life. Her "friend" Fred Miller says, "A lady in the truest sense of the word, she owns a keen sense of humor and a pair of red flannel long johns without holes. She has the ability to paint a picture with her poetry and then put you into it... Guess youy could say she has a good memory, cause she can remember things that never happened."

Ian Tyson has been performing and writing authentic tunes of the real Western culture for years. After a period of disillusionment with music, and an idyllic stint working his cutting horses, Ian was urged by his wife Twylla to release a recording of his favorite cowboy songs, both his own and old ones. Old Corrals and Sagebrush coincided with a resurgence in interest in Western music and literature partly spurred by the beginning of the Cowboy Poetry Gatherings. Several albums and hundreds of performances later, Tyson might never be home in Alberta if it weren't for his devotion to the land and lifestyle that causes him to write in the first place. Ian has observed and admired the ways of ranch folk both north and south of the line and this year he presents the keynote address, in addition to bringing his fine music to the gathering.

Click here to hear audio excerpts from other poets.
To learn more about Cowboy Poetry - past and future - click on the subjects below:

The Medicine Line - The Whoop up Range - An excerpt from Ian Tyson's keynote address for the 1997 Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

The British Isles and the Roots of Cowboy Poetry and Music - The 1998 and 1999 Cowboy Poetry Gatherings will feature an exploration into the relationship between cowboy poetry and its Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and Gaelic roots in the British Isles. Learn more about this exciting project which is teaming the Western Folklife Center with folklorists and artists in the British Isles.

A Revival Meeting and its Missionaries: the Cowboy Poetry Gathering - An essay by cowboy poet and musician, and National Heritage Fellowship recipient, Buck Ramsey, for the National Endowment of the Arts' report on the folk and traditional arts in the United States, "The Changing Faces of Tradition."

Texas, Wyoming, and the Dakotas - Celebrating ten years of Gatherings. More and more regional cowboy gatherings have been around to create the history of a decade. This year we acknowledge the contributions of three of these gatherings.

	Bud McKague has raised cattle, been on the rodeo circuits and operated his own sawmill business. Over the years he has memorized an impressive repertoire of cowboy poetry, ranging from the classics to contemporary, with a few of his own thrown in for good measure. at the prompting of his wife, he's been sharing his talents with audiences and gatherings and other events since 1992. He lives in Peachland, British Columbia.
	Terri Mason lives with her husband and protagonist of many of her poems, Rusty, in Airdrie, Alberta, where they keep busy with ranching life. Her "friend" Fred Miller says, "A lady in the truest sense of the word, she owns a keen sense of humor and a pair of red flannel long johns without holes. She has the ability to paint a picture with her poetry and then put you into it... Guess youy could say she has a good memory, cause she can remember things that never happened."
	Ian Tyson has been performing and writing authentic tunes of the real Western culture for years. After a period of disillusionment with music, and an idyllic stint working his cutting horses, Ian was urged by his wife Twylla to release a recording of his favorite cowboy songs, both his own and old ones. Old Corrals and Sagebrush coincided with a resurgence in interest in Western music and literature partly spurred by the beginning of the Cowboy Poetry Gatherings. Several albums and hundreds of performances later, Tyson might never be home in Alberta if it weren't for his devotion to the land and lifestyle that causes him to write in the first place. Ian has observed and admired the ways of ranch folk both north and south of the line and this year he presents the keynote address, in addition to bringing his fine music to the gathering.