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Red Steagall,
respected entertainer, songwriter, and past Texas Poet
Laureate will receive the
Boss of the
Plains
award from the National Ranching
Heritage Center in Lubbock at a special gala on June 1, 2012.
The award "...was created in 1999 as an annual recognition of individuals from
throughout the nation who have provided outstanding support of the National
Ranching Heritage Center or its non-profit organization the
Ranching Heritage
Association..."
In a May 10, 2012
article
by Ray Westbrook in the
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal,
Jim Pfluger, executive director of the National Ranching Heritage Center and
the Ranching Heritage Association is quoted, "Red is unpretentious in his love
for the West, as evidenced by his life’s work. Some may wear the hat and boots,
but it’s just part of their profession or Western persona. with Red, it’s for
real. He’s the genuine product..."
Andy
Wilkinson, who
will perform at the sold-out gala—along with Barry Corbin, Kenny Maines,
R.W. Hampton, and Andy
Hedges—comments
in the article, "Everybody thinks about him as Red Steagall the cowboy poet and
cowboy singer, and that’s true, but there’s a lot more to his creative life
than that. He is a very generous spirit — he’s interested in the history of the
West."
The June, 2012 issue of
Western Horseman
includes an article, "A Salute to Steagall," by Senior Editor Jennifer
Dennison. She reports on the
Boss of the Plains
award and gives a concise history of Red Steagall's considerable
accomplishments. He is quoted, "I'm so proud of the Ranching Heritage Center
and what it stand for and what it will mean to future generations to learn
about the American rancher. To be a part of that is humbling."
Four of Red Steagall's poems are featured on The BAR-D
Roundup: "Born to This Land," "The Fence That Me and Shorty Built,"
"McCorkle and the Wire," and "The Memories in Grandmother's Trunk." Find more
about Red Steagall in our feature here and visit
www.RedSteagall.com.
Find more about the
Boss of the Plains
award here.
[photo
by
Jeri Dobrowski;
see her gallery of western performers and others
here.]
Posted 5/14
Songwriter, horsewoman, and rancher
Trinity Seely
(trinityseely.com)
is featured in The April/May issue of
Ranch & Reata.
In the article by Range Radio's Bruce
Pollock, she is quoted, "...I just really want to keep the music real...how
real this lifestyle is to so many more than just us and to help perpetuate the
values and lifestyle of the cowboy."
Trinity Seely has a new CD,
Trinity Seely,
co-produced by Brenn Hill. Find more about the CD
here. Also among the highlights in the current issue:
Kathy McRaine's
inspiring article, "Her Rightful Place," about
ranch hand, writer, and poet
Amy Hale Auker's
life and writing;
a feature about
Bill Siems'
Open Range,
Bruce Kiskaddon's collected poems, with photographs and Kiskaddon's poem, "A
Time to Decide"; Jameson Parker's profile of top singer and songwriter
Dave Stamey,
with his comments about writing ("Almost everything I write is personal");
regular contributor
Tom Russell's
"The Michelangelo of the Western Saloon," about artist
Guy Welch
(and more, Russell style); a focus on the
Western Fokllife Center's
web site in the regular "Western Web" feature; Thea Marx' "Ranch Living"
section, which highlights Texas sculptor
Tom Morgan's
work;
Mark Bedor's
"One Day in Paradise" about a working guest ranch experience (see more about his
new book,
Great Ranches of Today's Wild West,
with a foreword by
Ranch & Reata
publisher William C. Reynolds here); respected
horseman
Buck Brannaman's
regular column; Joel Eliot's "The Gift of Tom, Bill and Ray," "reflecting on the
influence of
Tom Dorrance,
Bill
Dorrance,
and
Ray Hunt";
and an excerpt from Western writer and photographer
Dane Coolidge's
(1873-1940)
Hidden Water,
which is being serialized in the magazine.
William C.
Reynolds writes an intriguing article, "The Shoe Box," a story that involves
Helen Hunt Jackson and Charles M. Russell. The issue ends with Reynolds', "Our
First Year," which reflects on the creation of Ranch & Reata
and its future.
There are many additional articles on ranching, horses,
gear, music, art, photography, artisans, and other areas of interest in this
"journal of the American West."
The impressive print edition of
Ranch & Reata,
now in its second year,
is published in limited editions and available by subscription.
Find more about
Ranch & Reata
here,
where you can also view on-line versions of the current and
past issues.
Posted 5/11
Alberta's
Glenbow Museum
presents
Charlie Russell at the First Calgary Stampede,
June 2-July 29, 2012. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Calgary
Stampede, the museum is recreating an exhibit of paintings by cowboy artist
Charlie Russell (1864-1926) from the first Stampede in 1912.
From the Glenbow Museum description:
The 1912 Calgary Stampede. There was no midway and there were no horse
shows. But there was a rodeo and the artwork of Charlie Russell. Known then as
the Famous Cowboy Artist, Russell created art that connected deeply with
ranchers and cowboys in the West. His "Special Exhibition" of 20 paintings was
a huge draw at the first Calgary Stampede.
Glenbow is pleased to celebrate the Stampede's centenary by recreating this
1912 exhibition, which will include 18 of the 20 paintings exhibited in
1912....
Heralded as "a magnificent collection of western pictures" in 1912, Russell's
exhibition was incredibly successful, both critically and financially...
Find more about
Charlie Russell at the First Calgary Stampede
here
at the museum's web site.
Montana's
C.M. Russell Museum
holds the most complete collection of Charles M. Russell
works, and their web site includes much information about Russell.
Posted 5/7
Montana ranch hand and songwriter
Martha Scanlan
(marthascanlan.com) is featured on
NPR's
Weekend Edition Sunday's
"What's
in a Song," broadcast
April 29, 2012.
She tells about the inspiration
for her song, "Up on the Divide"
and comments on ranch life, the importance of preserving heritage, and
observes, "...there's knowledge that people only gain by doing the work."
Listen to
the broadcast
here.
Martha Scanlan was a featured performer at
Western Folklife Center's
2012
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and is a part of their
Expressing Montana project.
"What's in a Song" is an occasional series from the
Western Folklife Center
"that weaves together a tapestry of American music, one song and one story at a
time..." Previous programs have included Baxter Black,
Mike Beck, Stephanie
Davis, DW Groethe, Connie Dover, Stan Howe, Tom Russell, and others. Find many of the
broadcasts here at NPR and also
here at the Western Folklife Center.
[photo by Dawson Dunning courtesy of the Western Folklife Center]
Posted 4/30
Joel Nelson,
Texas rancher, respected poet and reciter, National
Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow, spoke recently at the
Blanton Museum of Art
at the University of Texas, Austin.
Joe Marshall of
The Alcade
wrote about the event in an April 20, 2012 article, "Cowboy
Poet Joel Nelson Charms the Blanton." He writes, "Of course, if anyone
alive can speak authentically about the cowboy life it’s Joel Nelson, who spent
decades working on 'cow/calf outfits' for some of the nation’s biggest ranches,
breaking horses in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Hawaii. But though a longing
for the Old West played a big part in Nelson’s work, his own repertoire ranged
widely, covering everything from the indignities of old age to the Chinese
zodiac and the history of the horse." Read
the article
here.
5 /1
UPDATE:
An April 30, 2012
article
by Rachel Thompson in the
The Daily Texan
reports on the event and quotes Joel Nelson on his writing habits, ""I have
absolutely no discipline in my writing. My wife and I ranch full time and we've
always got work to do. Occasionally a thought will hit me, and I'll just quit
what I'm doing, take some time and write
it down." Read the article
here.
Joel Nelson's talk was in conjunction with the museum's exhibit,
Go West! Representations of the American Frontier,
an exhibition exploring the pioneering American West as both a physical terrain
and an idea deeply rooted in the American psyche." From the museum's
announcement:
On view ...through September 23, 2012, the exhibition features paintings,
sculptures and works on paper made in, and about, the American West by Henry
Farny, Charles Russell, Maynard Dixon, and other artists from The Blanton’s
celebrated C.R. Smith Collection of Art of the American West, in the largest
installation of
this collection in over a decade. Works of related content from the museum’s
holdings by Jerry Bywaters, Frederic Remington and others, and a selection of
late nineteenth- and early twentieth- century American prints supplement the
installation, along with borrowed works from the University’s Harry Ransom
Center and Briscoe Center for American History.
Go West!
presents works from The Blanton’s collection by some of the most
illustrious artists of the period such as Albert Bierstadt and Frederic
Remington,” states Blanton director Simone Wicha. “Visitors will learn
about their lives, their artistic styles, the historical moments and
subjects they depict, and come away with an appreciation of the rich
heritage of the great American West.”
Go West! is organized thematically and chronologically, with
investigations of the country’s westward expansion in the nineteenth century,
including: contested territories and the ensuing battles of the U.S. Army
cavalry, representations of Native Americans, cowboys and ranchers, ideas of
Manifest Destiny, the industrialization and urbanization of the land, and the
ever-changing American landscape as witnessed and portrayed by artists living
and working in the Western United States.
Find more about the exhibit
here.
Find more about Joel Nelson in our feature here.
[image courtesy of the Blanton Museum of Art: Frederic Remington,
The Cavalry Scrap,
1906]
Updated 5/1
Henry Real Bird,
Montana Poet Laureate
(2009-2011), rancher, author, artist, storyteller, educator and Crow elder,
was a featured speaker at New Hampshire's Phillips Exeter
Academy on
April 11, 2012.
An article on the school's web site, "Native
American Poet Visits Exeter,"
by Nicole Pellaton, tells about Henry Real Bird and his
presentation; shares some of his advice to students
(including, "The sheet of paper is freedom, the first line
is free...the art is controlling after that."); includes a
slide show; links; and more.
Henry Real Bird's grandson attends Phillips Exeter Academy,
a respected secondary school founded in 1781. Read the
entire article
here.Henry Real Bird's
2010 poetry collection,
Horse Tracks
(Lost Horse Press),
received Montana's
2011
High
Plains Book Award. Four poems from that book are included
in our feature here:
A
Cottonwood Leaf, Thought,
Night
and Day, and
Flowers.
His poem, "Rivers of Horse," is included
on the just-released
The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Seven.
In July, 2010, while he was Montana Poet Laureate,
Henry Real Bird made a 500-mile ride across Montana, giving out books of poetry.
A National Public Radio broadcast, "Across
Montana on Horseback, Poet Hands Out Poetry" covered the
journey.
Find more about Henry Real Bird in our feature
here.
[photo
by
Jeri Dobrowski;
see her gallery of western performers and others
here.]
Posted 4/13
Fort Worth's
National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame presents
Hard Twist: Western
Ranch Women - Photographs by Barbara Van Cleve, May
17-October 28, 2012. Barbara Van Cleve is a 1995
Cowgirl Hall of Fame honoree.
Her book of
photographs, Hard Twist, was published by Museum of New Mexico
Press in 1995. The publisher described the book, "...Montana
ranching native Barbara Van Cleve traveled the Rocky Mountain West on
horseback over a ten-year period, gathering images of women on the range
and around their ranches—pictures of wind and
weather, roundups and rodeo, women of labor and gumption, and the
breathtaking landscapes in which they live."
From the museum's announcement:
The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame is pleased to present
"Hard Twist: Western Ranch Women," an exhibit by Master Photographer
Barbara Van Cleve, a 1995 Honoree.
Van Cleve is nationally known for her photographs of the western range,
ranchers, rodeos, cowboys and cattle women. Van Cleve's own heritage is
rich with firsthand experience of the cowgirl life. She grew up on her
family's ranch, the Lazy K Bar, founded in 1880 in the Crazy
Mountainsof Montana. Her parents gave her a camera and home developing
kit when she was 11....
Find more here
at the museum's site.
Barbara Van Cleve's photographs illustrate two of poet
Paul Zarzyski's books, Roughstock
Sonnets Poetry (1989) and
All This Way For the Short Ride (1996).
View images and more at Barbara Van Cleve's web site:
www.barbaravancleve.com.
Posted 4/9
Additional recent news items continued
here...Cowboy
Poetry Week; The BAR-D
Roundup: Volume Seven; Arizona
Cowboy Poets; Ranch &
Reata;
Rod Miller and other Spur awards winners; Western
Horseman
with Mike Beck; Ian Tyson; Doc
Stovall (1937-2012; Wylie & the Wild West and Paul Zarzyski in Russia; Cowgirls
with a Camera;
American Cowboy; DW
Groethe on NPR; Patricia Frolander wins Wrangler Award; Western
Horseman
with Gail Steiger, Amy Hale Auker, Andy Hedges, and more;
Romance Maker: The Watercolors of Charles M. Russell;
and much more...
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News stories,
features, web links, items of interest from the web, social media, and
you. Newest 
The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Seven, includes the voices of Amy Hale Auker, Stephen Vincent Benét,
Jerry Brooks, Ken Cook, Doris Daley, John Dofflemyer, Elizabeth Ebert, DW
Groethe, Andy Hedges, Yvonne Hollenbeck, Jess Howard, Carole Jarvis, Deanna
McCall, Gary McMahan, Wallace McRae, Rod Miller, Andy Nelson, Joel Nelson,
Rodney Nelson, Henry Real Bird, Pat Richardson, Randy Rieman, Jay Snider, Diane
Tribitt, Keith Ward, Andy Wilkinson, with a Public Service Announcement, by
Linda Kirkpatrick. 
Past United States Poet Laureate Ted
Kooser's American Life in Poetry column, updated
weekly.
