The 2025 Gathering brought approximately 2,508 attendees from 37 states to Alpine. More than 40 performers participated, including Skip Gorman, R.W. Hampton, John Lowell, Kye Rieff, Trinity Seely, and many more. Sadly, icy weather across Texas and the West prevented a few invited performers from attending, and reduced audience attendance.
Events were held Thu-Sat., Feb. 20-22, 2025. See the photo grid of performers and full schedule.
The 2025 keynote address, "Cowboy Songs, Poetry, and Western Agriculture" was given by singer, songwriter, and producer Brenn Hill. Interspersing his reflections with songs, he talked about the cinematic, sometimes tragic stories told in cowboy songs and the simple melodies they use; the struggles of ranching families; how mainstream country music has lost its connection to agriculture; and how cowboy poetry gatherings give a voice to the family rancher whose "families still live and breathe agriculture" and "steward land."
The 2025 Buck Ramsey award was presented to Zack McGinn of Texas for significant promise to contribute to the cowboy canon including poetry, music, and story.
The 2025 Keeping the Tradition Alive Award was presented to Brenn Hill of Utah. The award recognizes younger poets, musicians, and writers who honor our traditions and history.
Volunteers for the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress were again onsite to help collect and preserve autobiographical stories from veterans.
The 2025 Gathering program and art poster featured the painting First Dance by Bruce Greene, a member of Cowboy Artists of America, showing a cowboy and mature horse training a young colt.
The 2024 Gathering brought approximately 2,630 attendees from 34 states and 6 countries to Alpine to hear our outstanding "Branding Crew" of more than 40 poets, singers, songwriters, guitarists, fiddlers, mandolin and banjo players, humorists, authors, folklorists, and storytellers. We had a large number of first-time attendees, due in part to the front-page article in Texas Co-op Power (November 2023), extensive advertising and promotion on social media, RV groups organizing to attend, and word of mouth. The Wednesday night Show Rodeo raised $1375 for the SRSU Rodeo Team.
The Saturday night show (Roll On, Cowboys) played to a packed house before it went straight to Carnegie Hall in New York in March. This show brought almost all of the duet partners from Andy Hedge's album of duets onstage with Andy, including Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Dom Flemons, Pipp Gillette, Brenn Hill, Corb Lund, Waddie Mitchell, Brigid Reedy, Randy Rieman, Rod Taylor, and Andy Wilkinson.
We added a Thursday night show, and another cowboy supper ahead of that show. After the sellout 2023 Saturday night show, we implemented reserved seating with seat selection for all ticketed shows.
Events were held Wed-Sat., Feb. 14-17, 2024. See the list of performers and full schedule.
The keynote address by noted folklorist, documentarian, and banjo player Hal Cannon ("Making the Ordinary Heroic: The Work of John Lomax") highlighted the Texas folklorist whose 1910 anthology, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, was groundbreaking, followed by his collection of recordings for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress. Lomax's children also participated in his work, becoming noted folklorists themselves. Hal's skills as a radio documentarian came into play for his keynote address, and you can hear the recorded voices of John Lomax, Alan Lomax, Bess Lomax Hawes, Don Edwards, and others in his speech, which is available online at https://halcannon.substack.com/.
The 2024 Buck Ramsey award was presented to Kaden Miner of Utah for his significant promise to contribute to the cowboy canon including poetry, music, and story.
A new award for 2024, our Keeping the Tradition Alive Award, was presented to Brigid Reedy of Montana. The award recognizes younger poets, musicians, and writers who honor our traditions and history.
Volunteers working with the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress were present to help collect and preserve autobiographical stories from veterans.
The 2024 Gathering program and art poster featured the painting Roll On, Cowboys by Williams Matthews, used as the album cover of the same name.
2023 brought 2,260 people from 29 states and 2 countries to Alpine for the Gathering. The Saturday night show for 2023 (Charlie Goodnight: His Life in Poetry and Song) sold out, and we were thrilled that over 35% of our attendees were new to Alpine and to cowboy poetry. We also added a Wednesday night show rodeo in 2023 to showcase and benefit the Sul Ross State University rodeo team.
Charlie Goodnight: His Life in Poetry and Song was a knockout live performance of Andy Wilkinson's 1994 album about his great-great uncle. Read more about the album. The show include Barry Corbin, Andy Wilkinson, Jim Bradley, Pipp Gillette, Alissa Hedges, Andy Hedges, Maggie Rose Hedges, Lloyd Maines, Donnie Maines, Chuck Milner, Waddie Mitchell, B. Byron Price, Don Richmond, Dave Stamey, Rod Taylor, Emily Wilkinson, Ian Wilkinson, Pixel Wilkinson, Sterling Wilkinson, and more.
We had a number of additional performers in the Charlie Goodnight show, so more than 40 participated throughout the event (one list for the shows and sessions; one list for the Charlie Goodnight show). Events were held on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 18-19. The full 2023 schedule is here.
The keynote address was given by historian B. Byron Price, entitled "Goodnight's Life and Haley's Pen: Writing a Cowman's Biography."
The 2023 Buck Ramsey award was given to Carson Houser of North Dakota for his significant promise to contribute to the cowboy canon including poetry, music, and story.
The 2023 Gathering program and art poster featured the painting Rugged but Beautiful by Jack Sorenson, a member of Cowboy Artists of America, showing the spectacular Palo Duro Canyon beloved by Charlie Goodnight.
More than 1,500 people from 30 states and 4 countries attended our 2022 Gathering in Alpine. Thirty-eight performers participated, including Bob Campbell, Doug Figgs, Kristen Harris, Jill Jones and the Jingle Bobs, Ross Knox, and many more.
The funny and eloquent keynote address was given by cowboy poet, rancher, and truck driver Vess Quinlan. He said, "The wealthy and connected have scholars and historians to write volumes recording and preserving their culture. The rest of us have poems, songs and stories." A video and the full text are available online.
The 2022 Buck Ramsey award was presented to Jack George of New Mexico for his significant promise to contribute to the cowboy canon including poetry, music, and story.
Events were held on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 18-19 and included two cowboy suppers catered by Roux Alpine and a Saturday night dance with Craig Carter and the Spur of the Moment Band, all held at the Civic Center. The full 2022 schedule is here.
The 2022 Gathering program and art poster featured the painting West Texas Waltz by Tyler Crow, a member of Cowboy Artists of America, showing a ranch hand and his mount in pursuit of a bunch quitter.
We were unable to hold the in-person Gathering in 2021 because of the COVID pandemic, but we did produce two feature-length films filmed by John and Erika Moore, Keeping the Tradition Alive and The Legacy Lives On, each featuring five cowboy poets on their ranches in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. You can stream those films from our website.
The ten filmed performers in 2021 included Dale Burson, R.W. Hampton, Randy Huston, Joel Nelson, Rod Taylor, Mikki Daniel, Ray Fitzgerald, Amy Hale, Dave Stamey, and Gail Steiger.
The inaugural Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering was held Feb. 21-22, 2020.
More than 40 performers participated, including Red Steagall and his band, Mike Blakely, The Cowboy Way (Jim Jones, Doug Figgs, and Mariam Funke), Jarle Kvale, and many more. Rodney Nelson, the North Dakota poet and humorist who passed away later that year (October, 2020) after a short battle with Stage IV liver cancer, was a popular performer. Events were held on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 21-22, and included chuckwagon breakfasts each morning at Poet's Grove in Kokernot Park. The full 2020 schedule is here.
The keynote address was given by noted Alpine rancher and poet Joel Nelson. He spoke about the history of cowboy poetry gatherings, and how "poetry has enriched my life and so many others' lives." A brief summary and the full audio are available through the link above.
The 2023 Gathering program and art poster featured the painting Overseeing the Drive by Wayne Baize, a member of Cowboy Artists of America, showing a rancher moving cattle in the Davis Mountains of West Texas.
From 33 years, from 1987 to 2019, the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine was a cowboy poetry destination not to be missed. In February 2019, that gathering ended when the steering committee for the TCPG announced that the 2019 event would be the final event. Determined not to let the tradition of cowboy poetry in this region die out, a committed group of volunteers formed a new organization, the Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering, incorporating in July, 2019.