Kristyn Harris
This Texas-bred musical powerhouse is noted for her shimmering vocals, swing rhythm guitar style, unique songwriting, award winning yodel, and captivating stage presence. At age 21, she’s a 2-time recipient of the Western Music Association Female Performer of the Year (2014, 2015), and the youngest in history to receive this award. In addition, her albums “Down the Trail” and “Let Me Ride” have both garnered top WMA honors.
When Kristyn was 14, western and western swing music called strongly to her, inspiring her to pick up a guitar – and it has rarely left her hands since. She can be found horseback anytime she’s not gigging.
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Al Albrethsen
Al was born in November of 1921 on a small ranch near Gannett, in the Big Wood River Valley of south central Idaho. A succession of bad water years and low crop and livestock prices led his parents to leave that area in 1926 and move the family to a small rented farm near Meridian in the Boise valley. They eventually bought a farm in that area. Al lived and worked on that and neighboring farms until he graduated from Boise Junior college in 1941. During that period, he learned how to milk cows, ride a horse, drive a team, milk cows, pitch hay, shock grain, clean out a monstrous chicken house, slop pigs, dig post holes, string used barb wire, milk cows, take care of sheep, and milk cows. His poems paint a true picture of some of life as he saw it during that period.
Floyd Beard
He and his wife Valerie are ranchers on the High Plains and canyons of Colorado. Floyd writes down his experiences and observations while in the saddle working cattle, turning these thoughts into stories and songs. An multi-award winning Cowboy Poet, Floyd is the 2006 Colorado State Fair Cowboy Poetry Shoot-Out Champion. In 2015, he won the Kansas State Cowboy Poetry Champion both humorous and serious categories, the Cowboy Idol Poet at the Columbia River Cowboy Gathering, the National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo Champion, and the WMA People’s Choice Cowboy Poetry Jackpot winner. He was a finalist for 2015 WMA Cowboy Poet of the Year.
In 2016, Floyd won first in the Silver Buckle division Reciter-Humorous and champion of the Shootout at the National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo and was WMA Male Poet of the Year. His new CD, “Short Grass Country” was the most played poetry album in the beginning of 2017, and his poem “Ain’t a Hermit” won the Western Writers of America 2017 Spur Award in the Best Western Poem category.
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Valerie Beard
Valerie Beard is known for her spectacular photography as well as her award-winning poetry. In 2015, she won the first WMA Colorado Top Hand Award and the 2015 WMA Cowboy Poetry Jackpot Novice Division with her first poem, “No Better Life.”
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Jerry “Brooksie” Brooks
She has loved and recited poetry since she was young. Not only does she have a knack for recognizing a great poem when she hears one, Jerry can recite for hours on end from a huge collection of memorized works. At home, both in a saddle and wearing her miner hat, Brooksie now takes care of 80 acres along Clear Creek in south-central Utah.
Nona Kelly Carver
Nona Kelley Carver is a native Coloradan, now ranching at Mesa. Her ranching 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, as well as in two recently produced CDs of poetry.
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The Great Western Heritage Show
From Glade Park, Rick Cosby and Gary Mansfield, known as The Great Western Heritage Show, specialize in traditional cowboy music. They talk about the song then the history of where that song came from and the special things about it. They complete the song’s story by singing the earliest known version.
Find out more here.
Annie Hughes
Annie is a singer and songwriter with roots in folk, pop, and country music. She delighted the audience when she performed an original song at the 2016 open mic. Annie’s husband and long time collborator, Pat Hubbard, will accompany her on piano, mandolin, and backup vocals. When not playing music, Pat and Annie grow vegetables for the folks in Plateau Valley. They have planted a bunch of fruit trees and hope to harvest something from them during their lifetimes.
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Randy Huston
Randy Huston is a fourth generation livestock producer, and partners with his father on their ranch in New Mexico. He started breaking horses for wages at the age of 13 and spent many years in rodeo arenas through high school and college. In the early 1990s, Huston pulled from his experiences as a cowboy and former resident of the West to write and record several CDs. Randy was voted one of the top five male entertainers in 2007 by the Academy Of Western Artists, and was 2010 Academy Of Western Artists male vocalist of the year.
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Susie Knight
Was raised in an entertainment family who also loved the western way of life. She writes and performs her own brand of cowboy songs and poetry since she was a teen. Her passion is to spread the word around the state of Colorado that western entertainment is fun and enjoyable for the whole family. The recipient of numerous awards and honors including the 2016 Western Music Assn. Female Poet of the Year and the #1 performer of Cowboy Poetry on heard on radio worldwide in 2016, Susie Knight is Colorado’s own All-Around Cowgirl Entertainer.
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“Pickin Peggy” Malone
Is a local favorite and was one the Top Five Western Music nominees for “Best Female Vocalist of 2001.” Her song, “Singin’ A Cowboy Song” won an Emmy for Performer/Songwriter in 2001. It is also heard on the PBS Special, “A Night At The Rodeo.” She was inducted into the Colorado Country Music Association Hall of Fame on August 20, 2006 and was named the Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame Legend of Legends Female Vocalist in 2015.
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Slim McWilliams
A fourth generation Colorado native, Slim was reared on the stories of Will James. He started riding when he was four and grew up wanting to ride the rough string. Slim spent many years on working ranches, breaking colts, packing and guiding for outfits from Arizona to Montana. Slim learned many traditional cowboy songs around a campfire, in a bunkhouse, or in the cab of a pickup on the rodeo trail. He writes songs and poems based on his experiences and the semi-true stories of his friends. He and his lovely wife, Sue, live in southwest Colorado.
Terry Nash
Terry Nash has been a top five finalist for the last four years for Western Music Association Male Cowboy Poet of the Year. He was raised on a farm/ranch cow/calf operation on the High Plains of Colorado, near Idalia. After a thirty-five year career trucking, Terry drifted to a small ranch near Loma, Colorado. He and his wife have cut back to a semi-retired forty hours a week that keeps their horses and cattle in feed. Recently, Terry has lassoed a new career: songwriting.
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Dennis Russell
Shares his original poems and stories as well as sharing some of the classics at campfires or cowboy gatherings. He was appointed the first Cimarron Poet Laureate of Cimarron New Mexico and won the first Western Music Association (WMA) Western Wordsmiths Chapter Cowboy Poetry Jackpot in the Novice Division in 2014. A singer-songwriter, he is the founder of the Cimarron Cowboy Music and Poetry Gathering.
Find out more here.
