Brenn Hill

Brenn Hill is a singer/songwriter who reveals the heart of the West to anyone who will take the time to listen. He is not just an observer or narrator of western lore, but one of its strongest interpreters. The cowboy’s trials and tribulations are his raw material.

Brenn’s career spans seventeen recordings of mostly self-penned music and over two decades performing his music on the road. His most recent release is “Painkillers” which, like all of his music, serves as a pathway through his own Western adventures and the trials of life. Brenn is an artist who gives great insight into the West that he calls Heaven. He lives with his wife and three children in Hooper, Utah.

Kristyn Harris

Kristyn Harris, of Burleson, Texas, is the 5-time International Western Music Association Entertainer of the Year, and the youngest person to have received this honor. She is recognized for her powerful voice, swing rhythm guitar chops, songwriting, yodeling, and energetic stage presence, as well as the passion and authenticity that she puts into each performance.

Kristyn tours across the U.S. and internationally, both as a solo artist as well as with various band configurations. Outside of music, her time is spent with her herd of black angus cattle, working her newest colt, or trick riding.

Her latest album, “A Place to Land”, was recently named Outstanding Western Album by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. As one venue put it: “This bundle of energy and talent is ‘the rage’ on stage from the east coast to the west and if you can stay seated when she finishes her performance you’re prob’ly ‘bout ready for the grave!!”

Floyd and Valerie Beard

Floyd Beard lives twelve cattle guards from the pavement near Kim, Colorado. He and his wife, Valerie, run cattle with their daughter and son-in-law. A good day involves getting up before the sun is “pinking up the east”, riding, working cattle, and settling down on the porch to watch the sunset. Floyd is an award-winning poet and has been writing and rhyming for over 30 years.

Floyd is the 2016, 2017, and 2021 International Music Association’s Male Poet of the Year. His most recent CD, “Horse Tales and Cow Trails” also won the IWMA’s 2021 Cowboy Poetry CD of the Year. Most of his original poetry is written about his observations while working on the ranch. For more information go to:  www.floydbeardcowboy.com or email him at febeard@yahoo.com.

Valerie is a rancher’s wife, teacher, writer, crew cook, quilter, and reader. She and her husband, Cowboy Poet Floyd Beard, live in Southeast Colorado and run cattle with their daughter and son-in-law. They keep a few Border Collies around to stay humble. Valerie released a CD this year, “No Better Life” that debuted with the International Western Music Association in the #1 spot. She also was a top five finalist for IWMA Female Poet of the Year in 2019 and 2021.  For more information go to: www.valeriebeard.com

Nona Kelley Carver

Nona Kelley Carver is a native Coloradan, now retired from ranching at Mesa. Her experience shows in her work that she refers to as “fiction with a few facts thrown in.” Believing that reciting makes an author’s work come alive for the audience, Nona gives her best whether it is to a small group or at The National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration where she is a repeat performer. Her work has been published in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies. Her CDs and books of poetry are currently sold out.

Bill Clark

Bill Clark has a passion for true Country/Western Music. The kind that tells a story about life in the mountains, working hard, loving with all you have, and thanking God for it. A true Cowboy’s Life in Colorado.

He won Country/Western Albumn of the Year in 2016 from the NTCMA. In 2019, he won male vocalist at the CCMA, leading him to also win the song writer award at the NACMAI competition in Pigeon Forge, TN. Bill lives in the beautiful Plateau Valley in Colorado.

Mike Dunn

Mike’s extremely proud of his Arizona heritage going back to the 1800s. His personal experiences center along the eastside of the Whetstone Mountains, southwest of Benson where much of his Granddad’s ranch, the Rail “A” brand, is still in the family today.  It was there he learned first hand what cowboy life was all about and cherishes those memories.  He’s worked the ranch much of his life and now part owner, spending as much time there as life allows.

Much of his original poetry, shared in the book entitled “Somewhere Between Earth and Heaven,” reflects his own experiences, along with the experiences and stories passed down – widely accepted as a tribute to the ranch family.  The Academy of Western Artist named it as a recipient of the Will Rogers Medallion Award shortly after its publication; there are also two CDs (Volumes 1 & 2) by the same name.

Mike enjoys sharing stories in rhythmic form. Stories dealing with the joys and dreams, as well as the more serious, sad, and heart felt realities of cowboy life. Humorous, energetic, patriotic, solemn, simple, caring, wild, sad, daring, trusting, the list goes on, and the cowboy’s guilty of it all. His hope is to share a bit of that spirit in his writings and recitations.

Mike currently is living in San Tan Valley, Arizona with his wife Linda of 50 plus years.  While there they now spend much of their time helping to raise grandkids and training horses.

Susie Knight

Susie Knight hangs her hat in Conifer, Colorado. Audiences from Washington to Kansas and Canada to Arizona have enjoyed her enthusiastic stage presence and professional delivery as she performs as a western singer/songwriter and cowgirl poet for kids of all ages from classrooms to campfires to concert halls.

Horsewoman, Susie Knight, has worked on both horse/cattle operations, dude ranches, and riding stables for the majority of her life. Currently, she serves as the Secretary/Treasurer of the International Western Music Association Colorado Chapter and a Board Member of the Colorado Cowboy Gathering.  She’s won numerous awards for her original cowboy poetry since 2012, won the 2021 Academy of Western Artists Western Song of the Year Award for her song, “Turn ‘em Loose,” and was most recently honored as the recipient of the prestigious 2021 International Western Music Association’s “Spirit of the Cowboy” Award.

She’s a 2019 graduate of both the World Wide College of Auctioneering and the World Champion Ringman College. From 2021-2022, she was the host of her own internet radio show, “The Western Way Hour,” which featured western music and cowboy poetry.  On stage and in the saddle since age 3, Susie Knight, is known as Colorado’s Own All-Around Cowgirl Entertainer!

Paul Larson

Paul acquired many talents before making his home in the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota, just a bit outside the small community of Rochford. Known for his baritone voice and cowboy yodel, he was once introduced by an announcer, “Paul is a man with the voice he’d hire to ride circles around a rangy herd of cows to keep them quiet through the evening.”

Paul is grateful to have the opportunity to write and play his music in many places. He has won awards such as the South Dakota Country Music Hall of Fame in 2018 and the Steve Thorpe Brass Harmonic Award for mentoring and promoting The Arts. He has performed with some of the best musicians in South Dakota such as Kenny Putnam, Boyd Bristow, Chet Murray, Gordy Pratt, Jami Lynn Buttke, and also has been on South Dakota Public Radio and local television stations. He enjoys performing and producing music with friends at Cowboy Poet Gatherings, weddings, funerals, The Moonshine Gulch Saloon in Rochford, hosting and performing Cowboy Christmas Shows, High Country Guest Ranch Open Stage, and the Palmer Gulch KOA Chuck Wagon Supper Shows. There’s also a good chance you could catch him singing on the front porch of his cabin with his guitar, family and friends.

Peggy Malone

Terry Nash

Terry Nash is one of the most sought-out poets around, due to his creative ability to put words together and deliver them in a captivating way.

A beef producer from Loma, Colorado, Terry knows what he’s talking about and he knows how to draw you into his stories. His tales are of the West not seen from an interstate or from the bleachers at a rodeo. He lives the life he writes about, and he’s a master at showing it to you. And he’ll grill you a darn good mountain-raised steak!

In 2018, he won the International Western Music Association award for Male Poet of the Year, plus CD of the year for his latest, “A Good Ride.” In 2021 Terry was awarded an IWMA “Special Achievement award for the book “Four Aces and A Queen.”

Terry performs in gatherings from Alpine to Elko, Abilene to Prescott, and all points between. He does private performances and banquet speaking and loves to emcee any event.

Find out more here.

Dale Page

Dale Page was born and raised in Oklahoma City, OK. While attending Oklahoma State University, he worked as a horseshoer, bull rider, stable manager, and on the movie set of The Cheyenne Social Club. Page majored in English, but after graduation in 1970, worked as the farm and ranch reporter for the Amarillo Globe News. His feature articles have appeared in the Quarter Horse Journal, The Western Horseman, The Western Livestock Journal, and Persimmon Hill.

Combining his learned appreciation of poetry with his experiences riding and packing in the Rocky Mountains, he began writing cowboy poetry in the mid 1970s. He writes mostly narrative poems and inserts both real and fictional characters into plots taken from actual experiences or created story lines.

• 2008: Best Overall Performer, Oklahoma Cowboy Poetry and Songs in Stillwater.
• 2010: First Place in Serious Poetry, Rising Star Division, at the National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo in Montrose, CO.
• 2015 Cowboy Poetry CD of the Year by the Western Music Association for his collection of original poems, Once We Were Kings.
• 2021 Special Achievement Award by the International Western Music Association for Four Aces and a Queen, the collected works of five poets.

Miska Paget

Miska has been a large animal veterinarian for 25 years. Her career and passion for livestock and the western way of life inspires her poetry. Her kind, thoughtful bedside manner is reflected with whimsy and heart in her writings about her patients, their owners and how they touch her soul. Her debut poetry album, The Best Horses In Heaven, They Have No Tail, was awarded 2022 Cowboy Poetry CD of the Year by the International Western Music Association.

The Russellers

Dennis and Bev

Dennis Russell, poet and songwriter, and Beverly Gray Russell, instrumentalist and best known for her musical saw. They share their original music and poetry that depict their ranching lifestyle on the beautiful Huerfano River in Southern Colorado as well as covering traditional stories and songs at campfires, gatherings and house concerts in family friendly entertainment. Dennis is Founder of the Cimarron Cowboy Music and Poetry Gathering and happy to be the emcee of any western event. You can often find Beverly showing kids, parents, and grand parents alike how her magical musical saw works.

Find out more here.

Kacey and Jenna Thunborg 

​Kacey and Jenna Thunborg, 17 year-old twins, live on their family farm in Lemitar, NM. Kacey received her first guitar as a Christmas present at the age of six. Jenna soon after received a guitar of her own and they began taking lessons at the age of eight with award-winning instrumentalist and “The Cowboy Way” member, Mariam Funke. And so began their journey into music and in specific classic western. Since then they have been fortunate enough to take part in many musical opportunities and adventures. The twins recorded their very first CD, “Simply Western” in 2019. In 2021, they received the International Western Music Association (IWMA) Liz Masterson Crescendo Award, and in 2019 and 2017 they won the IWMA “Youth Harmony Duo of the Year”. They are finalists for the 2022 Academy of Western Artists “Young Artist” and ‘Western Music Song” entitled “In the Moment”, a co-write with Kacey and Jim Jones and recorded by Jim, Kacey and Jenna. The girls are members of the IWMA Youth Chapter where Jenna serves as President. They also are members of the Cowtown Opry Buckaroos and their high school golf and speech and debate teams. The girls can’t wait to see where their music takes them next!