Tours, Cowboy Poetry Gathering, 2009!

Every year, end of January, cowboy hats and boots appear in downtown Elko. People collect from all over the U.S. and the globe to hear Western music and Cowboy Poetry.

In the modern age many long to retreat to what they see as "simpler" times when a daily routine was more defined. Chores ordered the day, chores closely connected to what kept us alive. We lived closer to the land that nourishes us.

Highlights this year were the family ranch nestled below the Ruby Mountains and an actual Remuda staged for us. A rare treat to witness the Remuda.

Click here for Barnes' ranch and TS Remuda pictures.

Argentina, Canada, Ireland, Australia--Wild Night in Sarahs' living room

According to Ed Miller it was a Ceilidh (kay-lee).

In the late 90s we brought Ed Miller to Sarah’s house at Cowboy Poetry Gathering time. He was part that year of the Gathering’s showcasing Scottish cowboys.

John and I, throughout the week, invite out-of-towners to dinner at Sarah’s, and Ed agreed to come. That evening after the meal he played guitar while we sang, and told stories, and jokes. The house was crammed with food, drink, poetry, music, and laughter.

Read about it:
http://www.cowboy johntours.com/articles-main.htm

PS: Cowboy Poetry offers these personal snapshots of real people. Let us put
together your tour for next year!

Argentine Pampas--Nevada high Desert. Not so different.

I should have measured how many miniscule stitches to the inch. Today, a month from when I visited the exhibit, I can’t begin to describe the braiding.


Armando Deferrari and Pablo Lozano are Argentine master rawhide braiders. They and the Brazilians were guests of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering this year, and some of their gear was on display as part of the “Cowboy of the Americas” exhibit in the Western Folklife Center.

Armando, older of the two, is a big man, probably over six feet tall, bearded, strong face, direct gaze. Pablo is younger with classic, fine features. Both were eager to show us their work. Headstalls, bridles, whips, and refurbished classical artifacts. They both work in silver and rawhide, and Armando, retired from veterinary medicine, maintains a silversmithing workshop.

They turn heads when they stride into a room with easy, welcoming smiles. Pablo wears a rakish beret, red dotted scarf, and short jacket; Armando, a black fedora hat, scarf, and brightly colored poncho with white geometric design.
Read more: http://www.cowboyjohntours.com/articles-main.htm

More on Wayne Dyer...

Getting the hang of this writing on Blog thing.

I could not get the link in the last post so finally
gave up.

The story about Val's friends from Wisconsin who came to Cowboy Poetry. Val died, but before she died she told her friends she wanted to go to the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko!

So, they brought her--in memory. They came on the train. Lost a purse. Found the purse. Heard Brazilian music, cowboy music, cowboy poetry, returned to Wisconsin (with the purse), and thought about Val the whole time. She was with them as they tramped through Elko, drove to Lamoille House every night (some nights on icey, dicey
frozen snow roads) to bed down before another day of poetry and music.

The article is at http://www.cowboyjohntours.com/articles-main.htm

Janice

PS. This computer is a machine. If we perserve we CAN make it
do what we want! Right?
Let's hope the link works.

Hang on, Wayne Dyer; we're goin' to Winnemucca!

1/30:

The lost purse story is circulating through Elko. O’Carrolls breakfast group in Lamoille heard it from Paula who got it from John. Susan passed it to a bridge group in town, and from there it hit the Western Folklife Center.

Wisconsin Sue is the lady holding the bag in this tale, and she’s feeling guilt,
but at the same time, she's a star all over Elko.

We met these ladies in 2004 when they came touring from Wisconsin.
Ringleader Val and teacher friends corralled Cowboy John. "We want a tour."
Val retired from teaching. Spent her time keeping her friends traveling.

The story of these Wisconsin ladies is a story of rare friendship.

They came to the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko as a tribute to their
dear friend Val...



Janice
for Cowboy John

PS. Every time I saw them during the Gathering it was a tribute to the
special bond they carried for each other and their absent friend Val.

"Blood sister to these fields..."

1/25:

Janice here for Cowboy John:

One of the fun parts of the Gathering each year is browsing new books. One I’m reading now, Sharing Fencelines is a journal of ranch life in the remote Nevada desert.

Carolyn Dufurrena, Linda Hussa, and Sophie Sheppard, ranch in Nevada-California’s shared corner. Desert, many years dry, some years in flood, always open and lonely. I’ve just finished Dufurrena’s portion.

These women live in a largely male world, yet their lives, and the lives of their men folk, too, are infused with intimacy of the earth that comes from years working the ground.

The price is hours on horseback, following cattle, in all weather. Dufurrena’s husband’s directions:

“Follow too close and she’ll turn around and fight you…If you’re riding flank, stay way away off to the side once they’re lined out…See where you’re going; figure out how to get there…Look. Think. Wait…”

Driving cattle demands an intimate knowing of their ways, a closeness garnered through years of exposure.

I felt Dufurrena’s embarrassment at being at the bottom of the learning curve, not having instinct infused when she was young, raised to horseback and empty horizons. She’s a “city” girl.

As much as I love being close to the earth I’m afraid I don’t have this kind of intimacy. I’d be embarrassed seeing obvious evidence of my "green-hornedness."

I envy this intimate knowing of the land. Riding its canyons and dusty valleys and turning the brown earth for seed, Hussa can say she’s a “Blood sister to these fields.”

You’d better read the book. It’s a sensitive inside-look at life close to the land. I’m still trying to put my finger on why the Cowboy Poetry Gathering exerts such a pull on the psyche of modern folks.



There’s the start of an answer in this book, I think.

Janice

PS: We can show you open country like the country Dufurrena, Hussa, and Sheppard make their home.
Open vistas you can't see the end of.
Check out the web site: cowboyjohntours.com

I'm not excited about watching snow melt in the parking lot!

1/23:
I remember the first time I heard of the Cowboy Poetry Gathering. We were living in Reno, Nevada, and John (“insurance man John” then) drove to Elko periodically to see clients.

One trip he came home buzzing about this brand new festival in Elko—a group of cowboys reciting poetry and singing cowboy ballads (different from Nashville country music).

My comment: “Wow! And you watched snow melt in the parking lot, too?”

I was not excited about cowhands reciting sing-songy rhymes.

John, however, was thrilled. He gets excited.

The lifestyle. Memories of the remote cattle ranch where he was raised. Working as a boy with horses, riding all day on the isolated desert looking for cattle. The Cowboy Poetry Gathering (a Gathering, not a contest. We’ll talk about that later) celebrated more than anything a lifestyle.

Since that first visit twenty years ago the Gathering today includes fantastic western artists, musicians, weavers of words, most of them philosophers.

People come. Folks from Japan, Europe, and American cities are fascinated with this lifestyle. And they can see it still here in northeastern Nevada.

We’re both excited about this year with the South Americans. John’s taking them on ranch tours this weekend.

The same tours YOU can take. I’ll keep you updated.

There’s a lot we learn from these guests who come here to share a lifestyle close to the land. Let me back up for a second and explain…

Well, on second thought, it might be better to let my thoughts continue in the next article.

So tune in tomorrow when I talk more about it.

Truth is, I need to gather my thoughts about the real meaning of this Gathering.

So check back here tomorrow.

Ok?

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived,” Thomas Merton

Janice


PS-John’s taking the Argentinians and Brazilians Friday to ranches, Lamoille canyon, and other great places. One year we finished the tour in a ranch house with Mongolian music, and brownies! Another year a French cameraman visibly blanched when told what he was eating! (Not brownies!)