Christian is 16 years old and a junior at Harker Heights high school.
He helps his family with their cows, building pens and loading the cattle.
He plays guitar and sings at Agape church in Belton, Texas and Heritage Country Church in Salado, Texas
Don Cadden lives with his wife Pam Cook in the mountains south of Alpine, Texas. (Yep, mountains. At 5,300’,higher than Denver!) They run a few cows, and enjoy retirement. Since 1990, Don has performed his music and poetry at cowboy gatherings around the west. He received the Heritage Award in 2014, from the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering for his dedication to the western way of life. Born in Gonzales, Texas in 1946, Don grew up in the rural community of Del Valle. He graduated from Southwest Texas State University, served in the military, and spent most of his adult life in the Austin and Dripping Springs area. He also spent a lot of time in the brush country of South Texas around Cotulla, and in the Big Bend area of West Texas before finally settling there in 2007.
A three-time winner of the Academy of Western Artists "Will Rogers Award", Chris Isaacs is a poet and storyteller who has lived the life that he writes about. He has seen life from a cowboy's point of view for all of his 60-plus years, and his poems and stories are alive with the heart and humor of life from a cowboy's point of view. He can usually find the funny side of any situation, and is considered by many to be one of the finest humorists in the country. Chris has been published in numerous magazines, including American Cowboy, Western Horseman and Cowboy Magazine. He has two books of his work published, Bringing it Home, and Rhymes, Reasons & Packsaddle Proverbs. The latter was nominated for the "Western Heritage Award" by the Cowboy Hall of Fame and winner of the "Will Rogers Medallion Award for Excellence" by the Academy of Western Artists. He also has five albums of his poetry recorded. His album "Both Sides" was voted "Poetry Album of the Year" for 1997, by the Academy of Western Artists. In 2002, his album "Out With the Crew" was voted the same honor. 2005 found him the recipient the Western Heritage Award by the Wickenburg Az CofC, the Gail I Gardner Award from the Arizona CPG and in 2009 he was inducted into the Arizona Culture Keepers.
FREDDIE FULLER, also known as the “The Singing Cowboy,” is a singer, songwriter, musician and storyteller. For decades, Freddie has performed before thousands at various functions, from house concerts to larger venues such as the famous Broken Spoke. Freddie entertained the troops in Iraq at the request of the commanding General. He has played for hundreds of assisted living, nursing home, and independent living residents. Freddie is also a frequent performer for Swan Songs, a non-profit that brings the gift of song to people at the end of life. Freddie plays at many private parties and ranches, as well as special functions like the Salado Education Foundation’s annual fundraiser, an event he has played for the past fifteen years.
Gary Allegretto is the 2019 International Western Music Association (IWMA) Male Performer of the Year. Western Horseman Magazine raves; “Gary's music transcends genres, generations and cultural barriers, yet is so professional, engaging and core to the cowboy that listeners can’t help but want to ride along.” Not only is Gary the best harmonica player you will likely ever hear, he is a remarkable singer, songwriter, guitarist and a masterful entertainer. His talents have also earned an IWMA Award, AWA Will Rogers Award, a Best of the West Award and the #1 spot on the Western music radio charts. His music is featured in major motion picture soundtracks. Gary’s engaging and often laugh-out-loud songs tell stories drawn from his rich and diverse life experience in the West (including ranch hand, forest firefighter as a USFS Hotshot, and bouncer in a couple of rough honky-tonks).
GARY ALLEGRETTO’S LEARN TO PLAY COWBOY HARMONICA INSTANTLY WORKSHOP
Be fully entertained as you receive a shiny new harmonica on which you’ll easily learn to play four songs in lightning speed - guaranteed. Family fun for adults and kids (ages 5 - 105). No musical experience necessary and all materials including songbooks and Hohner harmonicas provided.
Tickets only $20 (harmonica provided). Advance purchase suggested.
Ol’ Jim Cathey is a native Texan and his young bride Stella is his number one fan. Listening to his Granddad, Papa Hop, tell stories about growing up in the Texas Panhandle in the late 1800s and early 1900s gave him his love for storytelling and he uses this material in his tales and poems. He won the Silver Buckle and the All-Around Championship Award at the 2012 National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo in Kanab, Utah. He writes a weekly column for his local newspaper, the Marlin Democrat. Most of his work is in rhyme with a Texas western flair and a natural Texas twang, garnished with a love and
appreciation for God’s bounty.
Gary is an accomplished Cowboy poetry writer and reciter with who has been showcasing his poetry and harmonica skills since 2008. He has performed at many retirement centers and churches around the central Texas area and beyond. Some of his more notable performances include appearances at major Cowboy poetry gatherings around the Southwest including shows in Lubbock, Ft. Worth, and Alpine, Texas, Durango, Colorado, and Prescott, Arizona. Gary also won “The Best of the West” award as the top money winner at the 2017 National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo in Abilene, KS.
Although Gary and his wife Donna are not cattle ranchers, they stay busy maintaining a modest herd of Boer goats in Lorena, Texas. His love of livestock and the Cowboy Way led him into sharing his thoughts on the lifestyle of the American cowboy through his poetry and old cowboy campfire harmonica tunes. Through his experiences and imagination he attempts to capture and share the Cowboy Way by making you smile or by touching your heart.
"Devon Dawson, aka "Miss Devon" of Fort Worth, Texas, is a top entertainer in western music, and is the current Academy of Western Artists "Western Music Female Performer of the Year”. Noted for her very rhythmic vintage 'sock-rhythm' guitar style, and 'swingtime cowgirl' vocals, which bring to mind Dale Evans, Rosalie Allen, and Patsy Montana, her lively persona intrigues and engages both kids and the adults in her audience. She holds a Grammy certificate for her participation in the Disney CD "Woody's Roundup featuring Riders in the Sky', as the singing voice of Toy Story 2’s “Jessie the Cowgirl”. She has performed in and out of that character "coast-to-coast", and all across the American West, including at the renowned Grand Old Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, at Pixar Studios in Emeryville, California, and has even appeared at several cowboy events in France! She has made many personal appearances with Radio Disney, Imagination Celebration, libraries, schools, public festivals and private events. She has appeared onstage with Riders In the Sky, Michael Martin Murphy,legendary western swing groups, including “Billy Mata & The Texas Tradition", ‘The Texas Playboys’, The Tulsa Playboys, and with The Time Jumpers in Nashville. She has been a requested performer on shows with Leon Rausch, Tommy Alsup, and Floyd Domino’s All Stars. During the past decade, she popped up frequently on Encore Western Channel, and RFD-TV, and can be seen as ‘Becky’ in the second season of SUNDOWN, Bob Terry’s nostalgic 60s-style TV western webisode series on YouTube, and www.westernsontheweb.com
Teresa Burleson is an award winning poet whose poems are inspired by her personal experiences, her heritage and the Western way of life. She has an appreciation for the agricultural industries and the people who make their lives in it. Teresa's zest for life is evident in her poetry as well as her ability to make people laugh and touch their lives. With a clear, soft Texas drawl and a voice that Waddie Mitchell once declared was "like silk”, her poetry is beautiful, soulful and aimed straight for the western heart or the funny bone, as she tells of drought, rain, faith, legacy, horses, calving, and all the joys and hazards in life. Her passion for her Western Heritage is also how she makes her living. Her position as Director of the Stockyards Museum, in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards, allows her the opportunity to promote and perpetuate the local history and that of the historic cattle drives that passed through Fort Worth. She is honored to be voted the Western Music Association, 2019 and 2017 Female Poet of the Year and her CD,
The Calf Book, was named 2017 Poetry CD of the Year.
She has been in the Top 5 Nominees for Female Poet of the Year with the Western Music Association (WMA) in 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. In 2010 she was awarded the Cowgirl Poet of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists.
www.teresaburlesoncowgirlpoet.com
The farther you live from what some people consider civilization, the more self-reliant and innovative you must be. You have to admire a guy who enters a field and actually creates his own genre by making a musical instrument with which to conquer a niche that any other mortal is afraid to even challenge. That is exactly what Washtub Jerry has done. He is the only “tub-bass” player in the field of cowboy entertainment today. Not only that, but he may also very well be the hardest working man in the business. Go to any show where Washtub is performing, and you’ll find performers lined up to get him to play backup bass for them. I have yet to see him turn one of them down. In addition, he understands more about music theory than any music teacher I know and can illustrate it to you on his unique instrument with the skill of a philharmonic surgeon. And, to top it off, Wash was named "1999 Instrumentalist of the Year"
by the Western Music Association.
www.washtubjerry.com
Texas based singer-songwriter, has played professionally 55 years. Musical influences: early rock and roll, traditional folk music, Texas singer-songwriters, and western music performers. Worked nine years at the George Ranch Historical Park, in Richmond, Texas, as the resident cowboy singer. Grady has performed over 200 Western history educational programs, at schools all around Texas. Grady has performed at more than fifty festival and fairs around Texas. These performances also included Grady's 1870's fully outfitted chuck wagon. Grady is also a pretty good chuck wagon cook and storyteller. For thirteen years Grady produced the Words and Voices concert series in Marshall, Texas. He has performed in public venues from Beaumont to El Paso and Texarkana to Corpus Christi, and all around the great State of Texas, as well as shows in Louisiana, Arkansas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
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