Floyd and Valerie Beard

Floyd Beard and wife, Valerie, ranch in the canyons near Kim, Colorado where they run a cow/calf operation.   Floyd who has a gift to put words together that build a vivid picture in the reader/listeners’ minds has been writing and rhyming for over 40 years and is the 2016, 2017, 2021, and 2023, International Music Association’s Male Poet of the Year. His most recent CD, “Horse Tales and Cow Trails” won the IWMA’s 2021 Cowboy Poetry CD of the Year.  For more information go to: www.floydbeardcowboy.com or email him at febeard@yahoo.com or febeard22@gmail.com.

Valerie is a rancher’s wife, teacher, writer, crew cook, quilter, reader and Nana. She and her husband, Cowboy Poet Floyd Beard, live in Southeast Colorado and run cattle. She has been writing poetry for about eight years but thinking about it for her lifetime. Her first cowboy poetry CD, “No Better Life” was released in 2022 and won the International Western Music Association’s Cowboy Poetry CD of the Year in 2023. She was also named Female Poet of the Year in 2022 and 2023. www.valeriebeard.com

Dale Burson

Dale is a fourth generation rancher from the Texas Panhandle, award winning singer songwriter and multi instrumentalist with guitar, banjo, mandolin and fiddle. He has been a featured performer at gathering throughout the United States for over thirty years.

Dale’s songs have been recorded by Red Steagall and many others. His music promotes the western values like honesty, integrity, faith and hard work.

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 Album 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.

Darrell Holden

Darrell Holden is a proud 5th generation rancher from the West Desert of Utah. He started writing cowboy poetry in 1983 as a freshman in high school. It’s been a way to tell the story of his heritage. And it’s been therapy. He started reciting his poems at the encouragement of his wife and daughter. The very best part of this journey is when someone is touched to tears, or their side hurts laughing, because they’ve felt what he has written. Fierce advocate for ranchers and agriculture. Writes on occasion for RANGE Magazine. Member of the Utah State Cattlemen’s Association board. Married to Angie and they have two exceptional kids and one outstanding son in law. Happiest a horseback where cattle are and people aren’t. 

Allen and Jill Kirkham

Allen and Jill Kirkham are Academy of Western Artists (AWA) 2019 Western Group of the Year Award Winners, and 2019 Legends of Dakota Country Music Hall of Fame Inductees!

We are husband and wife Traditional Western Music performing artists from Custer, South Dakota. Allen and Jill are South Dakota Arts Council Touring Artist Grant Awardees, and South Dakota Humanities Scholars. We are 2019 Legends Of Dakota Country Music Hall Of Fame Inductees, 2019 Academy of Western Artists DUO-Group of the Year, 2015 Cowboy Idol Winners, and Four-time International Western Music Association (IWMA) Award Nominee Finalists. We feature singer-song writer Allen Kirkham on vocals, Cowboy yodels, guitar and mandolin, and Jill Kirkham on vocals, story teller, bass, and harmonica. Allen and Jill are celebrating their 45th Year of live concert performance in FY2025!

Allen and Jill are featured Western Music Artists at High Plains Western Heritage Center Cowboy Supper Shows in Spearfish SD, and were the feature Diamond Tours Dinner Shows for 5 seasons in Rapid City, South Dakota. We present Traditional Western-Cowboy Music supper shows, and a musical performance of “A History Of Traditional Western Music” at Western Heritage Centers, Museums, Historical Societies, National Parks, and State Parks throughout South Dakota, keeping our American Western Music Heritage alive for visitors to our state. Allen and Jill acted as extras in a Western Movie filmed in Custer and the Black Hills and released in summer 2022! We have also performed with chuckwagon dinner shows and stage shows throughout the Black Hills. We are weekly Radio Hosts-DJs on “Circuit Rider Roundup with Allen&Jill” on www.AmericanCowboyRadio.com and The Big 81, KBHB, 810AM Radio, Sturgis, South Dakota and were awarded IWMA 2023 Radio DJs and Radio Program of the Year!

Allen and Jill are members of the South Dakota Mounted US Marshals Posse providing mounted traffic control at major events in the Black Hills. Allen is retired Air Force and Army, with 34 years of military service, and a retired Worship Pastor. Jill is a National Award winning professional musician, artist and photographer, and retired High School teacher and golf coach. www.allenandjill.com

Susie Knight

Horsewoman, Susie Knight (Conifer, CO), is an award-winning cowgirl poet and western singer/songwriter. In 2023, she was inducted into the Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2021, the International Western Music Association awarded Susie Knight the Curly Musgrave “Spirit of the Cowboy” trophy buckle for her devotion to share and make aware the culture of western music and cowboy poetry.

These days, when she’s not working as a “Ringman” for Colorado Horse Sale, Corbett’s Auction, and various fundraisers, Susie serves as Secretary for the Colorado Cowboy Gathering. She’s an IWMA Disc Jockey promoting western entertainment on her weekly internet podcast, “The Western Way Hour,” which can be streamed anytime at www.mixcloud.com/SusieKnight .

On stage and in the saddle since age 3, Susie Knight is Colorado’s Own All-Around Cowgirl Entertainer.

Peggy Malone

Peggy, one of the co-founders of The Western Slope Cowboy Gathering, has been sharing her love of music for over 60 years. And, whether singing at a senior home, or Cowboy Gathering, she makes sure all leave with a smile.

AWA ( Academy of Western Artists , Gene Autry, Oklahoma ) awarded Peggy with Female Vocalist of 2023 !!  Yahoo !!

Colorado Country Music Hall Of Fame 2013 Entertainer of the  year, 2016 Female Vocalist. 2017 Legends of Legends Award.

“Singin’ A Cowboy Song”  won a 2001  Emmy Award.

Her song “Appaloosa” is the official APHC’s Club Song, Moscow, Idaho.

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.

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.

Rocky Sullivan 

​Rocky Sullivan was born and raised in Kansas in a ranching and farming family, he has cowboyed in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. He’s been a dude wrangler, a chuckwagon cook, camp cook and hunting guide. Rocky is an award winning cowboy poet and storyteller, having won both serious and humorous categories in the National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo 4 out of 5 years in a row with both original and classic poems. Rocky has proudly shared stages with some of the countries best cowboy poets and has shared his poetry across the west from Kansas to California. His mother named him Brian, but he was given the name Rocky at birth and it stuck. He likes to say, “I’m an Irish cowboy with the initials BS, if that tells you anything.” As a western history buff, Rocky loves reading about and traveling the west and meeting all the colorful western people which is where he gets a lot of his inspiration. As a man of God, Rocky has written a number spirituals and had the honor of having a couple put to music by gospel groups, he gives all credit to his Creator. His biggest fan and partner, Karen, have enjoyed doing living history/reenactment with an award winning troupe and entertaining folks with their dutch oven cooking. After much ado and haranguing from friends and fellow poets, he finally put out his first CD, “Old West Memories” this year. We look forward to entertaining at the Western Slope Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

Joel Alden White

Joel Alden White is a singer/songwriter from West Texas. He is a six-time nominee in the IWMA and recipient of the Academy Of Western Artists 2023 Song Of The Year.  

Joel has cowboyed and managed ranches in West Texas, been a Yard Manager for a West Texas Commercial Feedyard and a cattle buyer in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Arizona. Currently Joel is “technically” retired spending time with his wife, Kelly, in their home in Timbercreek Canyon just outside of Amarillo, making music, traveling, and performing.

White’s first 2 albums found success on the Roots Americana Country Charts with singles charting as high as a #1 and 2, #2’s. At this time his EP “Once I Was A Cowboy” has been in the top 30 Album chart for the IWMA for the last 2 years. The title song, “Once I Was A Cowboy,” was the #1 song on the summer 2024 IWMA Western Radio chart.