FEATURING: Darrell Holden, Lara Manzanares, Matt Robertson, M.L. Smoker.

Healing comes in many forms…words, songs, the wind rustling through the aspens or oaks. The ranching community intimately knows the reality of social isolation, long hours, no vacation days, and variable income. Whether using idioms that evoke western grit or leaning into difficult emotions through verse, one thing stands out: words matter. Let’s apply them for good health. Join poets Darrell Holden and M.L. Smoker, and musicians Lara Manzanares and Matt Robertson in the art of understanding life’s challenges in order to better live its joys. Open-minded. Whole-hearted. Thoughtfully worded. It’s a life-affirming state of mind.

Hosted by Kent Reeves.

From the 40th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

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PLAYLIST

"My Castle" - Lara Manzanares
"Last of the Lazy P Cows" - Darrell Holden
"You and Me" - Matt Robertson
"Letter to Hugo" - M.L. Smoker
"Untitled" - Lara Manzanares
"From Dad" - Darrell Holden
"Down the Fence" - Matt Robertson
"Shunga Sha" - M.L. Smoker
"The Big Man (Veritas Atrox)" - Lara Manzanares
"First Dance" - Darrell Holden
"Unsettling the West" - Matt Robertson
"A Letter to Jim Harrison" - M.L. Smoker
"Since I Left You (The Dog Song)" - Lara Manzanares
"Holy" - Darrell Holden
“Stars and the Moon” - Matt Robertson
"Untitled" - M.L. Smoker

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Darrell Holden
Vernon, UT
Darrell Ekker Holden is a proud fifth-generation rancher and cowboy poet from the West Desert of Utah. He writes about the legacy passed down by those who came before him and shares stories of working ranch families and cowboys who are still making a living with livestock. Married to his best friend Angie, they have two outstanding kids, Hailey and Dalton, and are soon to be grandparents. Darrell considers poetry to be simply life expressed in rhyme. And he hopes you hear what he writes and recites with your hearts.

Lara Manzanares
Tierra Amarilla, NM
Lara Manzanares is a bilingual singer-songwriter from Northern New Mexico. She grew up singing the traditional rancheras and corridos of her sheep-ranching childhood, and composes her own style of music in both English and Spanish. Following up on her award-winning first album "Land Baby," in 2025 she released "Yo Soy de Ti (I’m Yours)," an album inspired by her homeland and her experiences at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. When she’s not singing or helping on the ranch, you can find Lara on her Rio Grande loom, weaving tapestries with yarn from her family’s Navajo-Churro sheep.

Matt Robertson
Prescott, AZ
Matt Robertson writes and performs original cowboy music. A Wyoming native, Matt has travelled the west from Alberta to Arizona cowboying, riding broncs, and starting colts. His songs and music are inspired by his experiences making a living with a horse, and his songwriting is deeply influenced by his passion for western life. He has released eight albums to date and is currently writing for number nine. Matt’s songs dig deep into the reality of what he lives everyday. Alongside his wife Paige, he now lives in Prescott, Arizona, where he continues to train horses and write songs.

M.L. Smoker
Wolf Point, MT
M.L. Smoker is Nakoda, Dakota, and Lakota, a citizen of the Fort Peck Tribes, and rooted in her family’s homeplace Tabexa Wakpa (Frog Creek). M.L.’s poems speak to themes of personal struggle and identity, drawing from Native American culture, language, and history. Her words often seek to understand the kinship between people and places, and to bear witness to the world around us. She is a former Montana Poet Laureate, an educator and education advocate, co-author of the children's graphic novel Thunderous, and author of "Another Attempt at Rescue" and a forthcoming collection of poems in 2025.

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Filmed in front of a live audience at the Elko Convention Center’s Laurena Moren Theater on Jan. 30, 2026.

Made possible 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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