known to give her students
extra credit for attending. Most
are first-generation college stu-
dents and many are from inner
city backgrounds. She urges
them to, “just go,” and when
they do, she delights in the
looks of awe on their faces and
the fact that they often return
the following year “on pur-
pose.” They tell her that they
“didn’t know cowboys could be
funny.”
Nor did they know there
would be so much music. Pam
Cook estimates that music
makes up more than 60 per-
cent of the event, although
poetry and storytelling still hold
their own. And the music is
superb – from the precise vocal
harmonies of the Desert Sons
to the spirited jigs of the
Canadian group Cowboy
Celtic, whose music is, accord-
ing to group founder David
Wilkie, “what you’d hear if you
pushed back the swinging
doors of an Irish pub in
Tombstone or Dodge City.”
Whew! Can you smell the stale
whiskey?
While music brought me to
my first cowboy poetry gather-
ing (I wasn’t sure that cowboy
poetry was much more than
hoakum and Pecos Bill tales), it
was a recitation by Grammy-
nominated poet Joel Nelson
that set me on my ear and
made me a believer in the art
form. His rendition of Frank
Desprez’s “Lasca,” a poem
about a cowboy and his
Mexican sweetheart caught in
a stampede, was for me the
“gotcha” moment that almost
everyone seems to experience
at their first cowboy poetry
gathering.
Nelson is regarded by many
of his peers as a “cowboy poet’s
poet.” Both his Grammy nom-
ination for the CD Breaker in the
Pen and his 2009 National
Heritage Fellowship from the
National Endowment for the
Arts are validation of the grow-
ing acceptance of cowboy
poetry as the art form its prac-
titioners and fans believe it to
be. He admits that those were
proud moments and that he is
astonished at where cowboy
poetry has taken him in terms
of the honors as well as the
travel. He’s performed in scores
of locales including Hawaii
and London, but he does it he
says, “because I have to. I can’t
help myself.”
I heard the same words from
many of the cowboy artists.
The braided themes of the
cowboy life, the ties to the land,
the ties to something greater
and vaster than oneself and a
joy in language bring them to
Alpine annually to practice and
share their passion with those
of us who were lucky enough
to be hip to it from the begin-
ning, as well as those of us who
stumbled in late in the game.
Expect a packed schedule.
Expect to scurry from room to
room (nine or 10 sessions are
scheduled concurrently) to
catch that Apache Adams per-
formance that someone tells
you at the chuck wagon break-
fast that morning not to miss.
Try not to be disappointed if
Apache’s session conflicts with
Michael and Dawn Moon’s,
the one you want to see
because their kids perform with
them. And for that matter,
bring your own kids. A little
exposure to cowboy values and
literature could only do some
good.
Just as Ida Hoelscher’s stu-
dents have discovered, cowboys
can be funny, and they can, on
occasion, be hokey or visceral,
tough, romantic, tragic and
even transcendent. Don’t be
surprised if one of these per-
formances actually brings you
to tears. This ain’t Hee-Haw.
This ain’t Nashville. At its very
best, it’s art. Seriously. No less a
tenable and uniquely Ameri -
can art form as jazz or blues.
And it has been polished to a
diamond fineness in the hands
of craftsmen like headliner Red
Steagall who slip handily
between the spoken word and
melody to tell of a life that was,
and is, and, if these folks have
anything to do with it, always
will be.
And in the end it doesn’t
matter that the magic takes
place in a fluorescent-lit room
rather than by campfire light or
the glow of a neon Lone Star
sign, it is still, quite unlike Bud
in Urban Cowboy, the real deal.
When you live your art it’s like
the late cowboy poet Buck
Ramsey put it in his classic
poem, “Anthem”:
“And as I ride out on the
morning
Before the bird, before the
dawn,
BIGGEST
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West of the Pecos
Open 10am to 9pm
Mon - Sat Bed & Breakfast
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605 E Holland Ave • Alpine Flowers
By Kate
Special occasion
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432.837.7476
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Music To Your Ears
CDs • DVDs • Vinyl
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Tue - Sat 10-6
203 E Holland Ave, Alpine
432.837.1055
432.386.4165
Ave C & N 3rd • Marathon, TX
info@evesgarden.org
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Open Daily & Selected Evenings — Reser vations accepted
Cowboy Poetry Van Horn Style
The Texas Crossroads Gathering held in Van Horn Feb. 3 through 6 this year is smaller, looser and more free-
wheeling than its older sister in Alpine, and therein lies its charm. It bills itself as the poetry gathering “where the
entertainers invite themselves,” and for the most part that’s true. It’s much easier to earn a place in the lineup at
Crossroads than at just about any other poetry gathering. Poets just starting out are enthusiastically encouraged to come.
The atmosphere is roll-your-own spontaneity with a heaping helping of informality, and while it draws a lot of new-
bies, it also draws some pretty well-known poets who happen to like it that way.
Performers from Oklahoma, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Kansas, California and, of course, Texas are on
deck this year and include Buck Helton, who will emcee, Darrell Staedtler, whose songs have been covered by George
Straight, and Tony Argento, who calls his work “twisted cowboy poetry.” And as always, founder Bob Kinford will
be the ringmaster. For information on attending or participating, log onto www.texascrossroadscowboypoetry.org.
Cenizo
First Quarter 2011
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