Some of the Foothills’ supreme storytellers are bringing their tales to one of the biggest cowboy poetry and musical gatherings in North America.
Award-winning cowboy poet Doris Daley, legendary country musician Ian Tyson and Foothills band Cowboy Celtic have all been invited back to perform in the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Jan. 30 to Feb. 4 in Elko, Nevada.
Black Diamond poet Daley said this marks her 12th invite to the international festival, which honours the arts, culture and traditions of the rural west with poetry, music, storytelling, dancing, workshops, exhibitions, discussions, food and fellowship.
This time around, Daley is the only Canadian cowboy poet among the nearly 50 poets and musicians to perform from across North America and Australia.
“If you’re going to drop a name in my business, when I work on my bio or someone is considering me for a job, I can say no Canadian poet has been to Elko more than me by a long shot,” she said. “To say I am a Canadian poet who’s been to Elko 12 times, that says volumes. It’s a great professional honour to go to Elko.”
The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering had a huge impact on Daley.
“I’d been dabbling in cowboy poetry, enjoying it very much, but the first time I went to Elko I came back thinking I want to up my game,” she said. “I saw people really in love with the spoken word and really taking the craft of writing seriously and even though they were and are real deal cowboys, there were several people there who had a knack for being on stage.”
After performing for rapt crowds of thousands of people and hearing other talented cowboy poets perform flawlessly, Daley returned home determined to do better.
“I’d been coasting along just having fun but I saw just how good I can be,” she said. “I wanted to be a better writer and see how far I can go. It wasn’t good enough anymore just to have this long rambling rollicking poem with a good ending.”
Daley improved her writing, became a ruthless editor and honed her performance skills.
Every year since 1999, Daley has submitted her biography and writing samples to the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering jury and has been invited back 11 times.
“They know my name really well,” she said. ““It’s like a family reunion. You walk into the Pioneer bar and it’s jammed with 100 people and I know 99 of them. It’s good old-fashioned western fun with some of the best people in the west.”
Daley said she’s been working hard to prepare for this month’s gathering.
“I will do some of my work that’s already locked and loaded and memorized in my cranium, but I will crack out some new ones this year,” she said. “It’s a lot of work.”
Like Daley, Foothills band Cowboy Celtic has also been invited to perform at the national gathering about a dozen times, according to Turner Valley husband and wife members David Wilkie and Denise Withnell.
“I used to think there was no such thing as good cowboy poetry until I went down there,” said Withnell. “There are some incredible poets and I’ve always been a poetry buff.”
Cowboy Celtic also consists of fiddle player Joseph Hertz, of Nanton, Celtic harpist Keri Zwicker and bodhran player Nathan McCavana, both of who are from Edmonton.
Every member of the band also contributes individual vocal talents.
Wilkie said he first performed at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering with Ian Tyson in 1985, and as a member of Cowboy Celtic the past 21 years performed about a dozen times at the event.
“We consider it the grand daddy of cowboy poetry gatherings and we enjoy it a lot because it’s more of a cultural thing,” he said. “They bring a different culture in every year - Mongolian cowboys, Brazilian cowboys.”
Wilkie said the band’s music fits right into that cowboy feel, adding that a lot of original cowboy music in the west originated in Ireland and Scotland.
“They took the melodies from Ireland and Scotland and put cowboy lyrics to them,” he said. “It combines cowboy music with Celtic instruments.”
Whether or not Cowboy Celtic is selected by the jury to perform at the national gathering, Wilkie said they make the trip south every year anyway.
“The venues are just fantastic and the crowds are fantastic,” he said. “Everyone is there to hear that kind of music.”
Cowboy Celtic’s bandmates also goes into schools in the area to talk to students about their music and introduce them to the Celtic instruments they perform on.
For more information about the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering go to nationalcowboypoetrygathering.org
