Elko! A Cowboy's Gathering
Recorded live January 2004 at the 20th Annual National Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. A portion of the proceeds from this project will benefit the Western Folklife Center. Humans tend to label and categorize traits and styles. At the earliest stage when we decided to call it a 'Cowboy Poetry Gathering', we simply meant to give folks an idea of what we hoped to celebrate for one weekend in the middle of the winter, in the middle of nowhere, twenty years ago. We didn't know that a 'Cowboy Poetry Gathering' would be as much about music as poetry, but that became apparent as the genre found itself. Comedy, intelligence, emotions, politics, historical to contemporary stories, issues, nature, family and relationships all found they were welcomed. People who have attended Elko or any other cowboy poetry gathering around the country, have accepted this inherently. It's all part of it. 'You can't explain it, you've got to be there.' This is a comment that literally scores of people have told me they use when asked by the uninitiated why they would travel to hear cowboys spew poetic and play and sing the lost music of the West. 'It's magic. It's what I've been looking for my whole life without knowing it.' -Waddie Mitchell