Sunday, November 3, 2024

Howdy everyone!

Tickets to the Feb. 20-22 Gathering are now on sale to the general public. Tip: We use reserved seating for all ticketed shows, so getting your tickets soon will help you get better seats.

So you're thinking about coming to the Gathering, but aren't sure where you would stay. There are a number of types of lodging in Alpine and the Big Bend area: from historic hotels (the Holland Hotel and The Maverick Inn in Alpine, the Gage Hotel in Marathon, the Hotel Limpia in Fort Davis, and the Hotel Paisano in Marfa), to convenient chains and local favorites, to individual vacation rentals of all kinds, to cabins, campsites, and RV parks. If you need ideas for lodging, please check our Lodging page.

Our last newsletter featured seven Texas performers who are returning the Gathering this year. If you missed it, you can read it online. We are highlighting all our performers in our newsletters this year, starting with those who are new to the Gathering, and moving through those who are returning.

Now, here are the other seven returning performers from Texas, in alphabetical order.

Jeff Gore has spent the last 30 years traveling and singing cowboy and gospel music all over the U.S. and abroad. The recipient of Male Vocalist of the Year award in Cowboy Music from the Academy of Western Artists (1997), and a lifetime achievement award for Western Music by the American Cowboy Culture Association (2005, the youngest ever to receive this award), he has also produced and acted on television and has appeared in film. In spite of these and other accomplishments, he is proudest when he is asked to ride out with a crew of cowboys at the wagon on ranches from Texas to Idaho. He and his wife Donna of over 38 years have two daughters who live with their husbands in Abilene, and five grandsons.

Kristyn Harris is a multi-award winning singer, songwriter, and entertainer known for her western swing spin on original and classic songs of the western and rural lifestyle. She is recognized for her powerful voice, swing rhythm guitar chops, songwriting, yodeling, and energetic stage presence, as well as the passion and authenticity that she puts into each performance. She tours across the U.S. and internationally, both as a solo artist as well as with various band configurations. Outside of music, her time is spent with her "Diamond K" herd of black Angus cattle; working her newest colt; or trick riding, sometimes with her mustang Velvet.

Andy Hedges is a songster, reciter, and guitarist. His varied repertoire includes classic cowboy poetry recitations, obscure cowboy songs, dust bowl ballads, and blues. His album Shadow of a Cowboy was honored in 2023 with the Western Heritage Award for Traditional Western Album, presented by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Andy also hosts a podcast, Cowboy Crossroads, which features in-depth interviews with poets, musicians, songwriters, and historians; and hosts the quarterly one-hour Cowboy Crossroads Radio Program on WSM Radio from Nashville. In 2023, he made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, and in 2024, Andy brought his album Roll On, Cowboys to Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Joel Nelson has made his living, either directly or indirectly, with horses and cattle on outfits such as the King Ranch, o6 Ranch, and Parker Ranch since college graduation. He began writing while serving with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam and has been a serious writer and reciter of traditional and free-verse poetry for many years. In 2000, his CD The Breaker in the Pen earned a Grammy nomination in the Spoken Word category alongside notables such as Leonard Cohen, Jewel, and Tom Brokaw. He was the AWA male poet of the year in 2002 and he describes his poetry as being "the distilled product of the life he has led." Joel and his wife Sylvia work side by side managing the Anchor Ranch near Alpine where they raise Corriente cattle. You can hear Joel in part 1 and part 2 of his first Cowboy Crossroads interview, and in a later interview about his time in Vietnam.

Chris Ryden has lived and performed across Texas and the West. He spent his childhood in San Antonio, cowboyed and packed in Wyoming, and calls Midland, Texas home with his wife and four children. After an 18-year hiatus from creative writing, Chris returned to the studio with a dozen originals to record in 2021. The album titled In the Distant is a vision of life, loss, love, and legacy across these lonely spaces west of the 100th meridian. He's happy to still be horseback with friends who share a passion for the rural west, its people, and our place among them. Chris continues to honor both traditional cowboy songs and western folk music from West Texas and Wyoming to California.

Andy Wilkinson realized at the tender age of six that he wanted to be a poet. He also realized that the way to become a good poet was to live a life of variety, so he set about building an eclectic resume that includes time spent as a police officer, financial planner, commodities broker, and a formative stint as a bag-boy and cashier at Piggly-Wiggly. Andy wrote songs and poetry all along, releasing albums and gaining a reputation as a well-researched and well-liked personality on the national cowboy poetry stage. Andy currently serves as the Artist-in-Residence at Texas Tech University's Southwest Collection and continues writing and making music as a way of life. You can hear Andy in his Cowboy Crossroads interview, and in a later interview about Charlie Goodnight (part 1 and part 2).

Emily Wilkinson has been singing with her dad Andy for over two decades and was one of the featured performers on the 1994 album Charlie Goodnight: His Life in Poetry and Song. Since 2014 she has been the Public Art Director for the Texas Tech University System, and before that, was the Helen DeVitt Jones Endowed Manager of Education for the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas. She holds two master's degrees from Texas Tech University — one in museum science and another in education — and is currently working on her PhD in Higher Education Administration.

All the best,
Kay and Gene Nowell
Co-Chairs
Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering

P.S. Here's the ticket link again. See you in Alpine in February!

P.P.S. Here's the full 2025 schedule. Happy planning!

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