FEATURING: Andy Hedges, Brenn Hill, Andy Nelson, special guest Brigid Reedy.

A little bit of everything! This show's sure to satisfy your cowboy poetry cravings and keep you (and the crew) fed on beefy western music for the rest of the winter. So, bring your friends, divvy up the seats, and dig in for an evening of thorough cowboy sustenance. Feast on the all-round catalog of Andy Hedges, the tender-not-tough tunes of Brenn Hill, and the ribbing-and-wry humor of Andy Nelson. With this kind of variety, you're sure to get your favorite cut.

From the 39th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

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PLAYLIST

"Neighborhood Colt Breaker" - Brenn Hill
"The Worst One to Buck" - Andy Nelson
"Horseback Man for Hire" - Andy Hedges (words + music by Joel Nelson)
"Navajo Rug" - Brenn Hill (words + music by Ian Tyson + Tom Russell)
"Pole Corral Dancing" - Andy Nelson
"The Red Cow" - Andy Hedges (poem by Larry McWhorter)
"I Like" - Brenn Hill
"Did I Shut the Gate?" - Andy Nelson
"Ranahan Throwback" - Andy Hedges (words by Paul Zarzyski + music by Andy Hedges)
"She Loves Me Anyway" - Brenn Hill
"Language Barrier" - Andy Nelson
"Sweetwater Beach" - Brenn Hill
"Desert Sands" - Andy Hedges with Brigid Reedy (words + music by Glenn Ohrlin)
"Roll On Cowboys" - Andy Hedges + Brenn Hill with Brigid Reedy (words + music by Bob Campbell)
"By Giving Me Horses" - Andy Nelson
"Horses of War" - Brenn Hill
"Third Race at the Honeymoon is Over Downs" - Andy Nelson (original poem by Nick Sanabria)
"E.M. "Red" Kluver" - Andy Hedges (poem by Wallace McRae)
"Greys River Road" - Brenn Hill
"The Old Cowman" - Andy Hedges + Brenn Hill (words by Badger Clark + music by Don Edwards)
"The Old Shoer" - Andy Nelson

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Andy Hedges
Lubbock, TX
Andy Hedges is a songster, reciter, storyteller, guitarist, and collector of cowboy songs and poems. The son of a schoolteacher and a rodeo-cowboy-turned-preacher, Andy grew up in Tokio, Texas, where his family paid rent on an old farmhouse by looking after a few head of cattle. There, he fell in love with traditional music by listening to his father’s cassettes of cowboy songs. Andy’s vast and varied repertoire includes cowboy poetry recitations, obscure western ballads, and the folk-blues of the working cowboy. His podcast Cowboy Crossroads features interviews with fellow musicians and poets. In 2023, Andy debuted at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and in 2024, he brought his album Roll On, Cowboys to Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Brenn Hill
Hooper, UT
For more than three decades, Brenn Hill has stood under a cowboy hat and behind a microphone on countless stages blending his voice with bending guitar strings in a performance style all his own. He uses lyrical language to peel back the layers of life in the West to reveal a more meaningful, more affective, more effective, understanding of modern agriculture. Brenn’s 17-album catalog is a journey into the hearts of the agrarians of the great American West. And it took many a wet saddle blanket to build the carefully crafted insight. Brenn is far from the dispassionate, steely-eyed cowboy of legend. He lays bare in his music a willingness to set aside the fiction of cowboy stoicism and wear his heart out on his chest.

Andy Nelson
Pinedale, WY
Andy Nelson is an energetic and high-spirited cowboy poet and humorist from Pinedale, Wyoming. As a second-generation farrier raised in Idaho, he traveled the Great Basin with his father on farrier jobs. Now, he and his brother Jim co-host the Clear Out West (C.O.W.) Radio Show weekly podcast, and are in demand as announcers at regional rodeos. Andy offers a wide range of the history, heritage, and hilarity of cowboy culture through the traditional poetry of rhyme and meter and the ever-popular American cowboy art of storytelling. With his experience, talent, and comedic flair, Andy brings an authentic and entertaining touch to any audience.

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Filmed in front of a live audience at the Elko Convention Center’s Laurena Moren Theater on Feb. 2, 2024.

Made possible by Home2 Suites by Hilton and by the multitude of staff, artists, volunteers, and community members working behind the scenes to make this show happen.

Brought to you by the Western Folklife Center, using story and cultural expression to connect the American West to the world.
www.westernfolklife.org

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