All Star Cowboy Poetry and Music Show

Doug Figgs is a horseshoer, a day working cowboy, and a Western music singer/songwriter. In more than twenty-five years of shoeing horses, he has earned the title of “Certified Journeyman Farrier”, the highest level attainable through the American Farrier’s Association. In the last few years, he has turned his attention to his love of music with the emphasis on Western themes.  His 4th album, “A Cowboy Like Me” received the Rural Roots Music Commission’s 2016 “Traditional Western Music” CD of the year award. As a member of the Western Music Association, he was named 2018 and 2021 Male Performer of the Year, 2015 Songwriter of the Year and his song “Socios” was named 2015 Song of the Year. He received the Academy of Western Artists “Will Rogers Award” for 2015 Western Music Male Vocalist of the Year. His song “Socios” also won the Academy of Western Artists “Will Rogers Award” 2014 best Western song, and a co-writer with Todd Carter “Charlie and Evangeline” won the Western Writers of America 2015 “Spur Award” for best Western song, both songs from his “Partners” CD. A third song (also from the “Partners” CD), Running With the Wind”, won the New Mexico Music Awards 2015 best Western song. He has toured the Southwest extensively and continues to turn out his own variety of Western music, from hard driving songs with a tinge of southern rock, to beautiful ballads and everything in between.

He will also be leading a Songwriter Workshop on Saturday morning at 10AM under the tent in Grandview Park.

More about Doug Figgs

Tony and Carol Messerly are “Manystrings & Co”. Their music is referred to as Western Folk, sometimes quirky and rarely serious. Nominated for the 2012 Western Duo Group of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists, Tony was name Male Yodeler of the year in 2013 by the International Western Music Association and they are recipients of the Academy of Western Artists 2018 Western Duo of the Year. You can be sure that the musical duet of Manystrings & Co. will take you back to yesteryear with their whimsical ballads, cowboy songs and mountain man originals. This Wyoming/Utah duo has six CD’s and has performed at venues across the west.

So, pour yourself a cup, toss another log on the fire and enjoy the tunes.

More about Manystrings

Cowboy Poet & Songwriter.

Terry Nash has been a top five finalist for the last four years for the Western Music Association Male Cowboy Poet of the Year award. He was raised on a farm/ranch, cow/calf operation on the High Plains of Colorado, near Idalia. In the late eighties, Terry drifted to a small ranch near Loma, Colorado, where he and his wife Kathy raise horses, hay and beef, and spend as much time on the mountain horseback riding as possible. Along with writing and reciting his original cowboy poems, Terry brings classic cowboy poetry to stages throughout the West, and has recently co-written a couple of songs. Note: Don't ask him to sing!

More about Terry Nash

Jamie is a Wyoming native who grew up working on her parents’ ranch in Star Valley. This is where she developed a love for the cowboy culture and taste for western music. She started teaching herself guitar at age 17 with the goal of one day being able to perform some her favorite cowboy songs and to share some of her own. Jamie is a student at the University of Wyoming and is majoring in Rangeland Ecology and Watershed Management and she hopes to share her love of the cowboy way of life through music.

Caitlyn Taussig is a fourth-generation rancher from Kremmling, Colorado. She runs cow-calf pairs with her mother on their high-country cattle ranch. Caitlyn’s interests include travel, cattle care, learning to be a better roper, and studying up on bridle horses in the Californio tradition.

Caitlyn has been singing since childhood and has performed at ranch brandings, cowboy gatherings, private events, guest ranches, bars and ranch ropings. She draws inspiration for her songwriting from Colorado's rugged and beautiful landscapes, her experiences summering cattle at 9,000 feet, cowboying in rough high country and dark timber, working on the family ranch and feeding cattle in the harsh winter months, and listening to her late father’s wild stories. An article about the Taussig family appeared in the February 2016 issue of Western Horseman, and in January 2019 Caitlyn and her mother Vicki were featured in the front-page NY Times Sunday business section story "Female Ranchers are Reclaiming the American West".

Caitlyn's debut album, The Things We Gave Up, was released in January 2015.

More about Caitlyn Taussig

Washtub Jerry has backed some of the best musicians in the world as well as some who were just beginning. In 1999 he was named Instrumentalist of the Year by the Western Music Association. In 2013 he received an American Cowboy Culture Association Award for Western Music. He is a member of the International Society of Bassists, has performed at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, the Phoenix Theater, Silver Dollar City, Branson, MO, for five seasons, the Ozark Folk Center, was the featured musician with the Midland-Odessa Symphony Orchestra and participated in musical cultural exchange tours in Russia, Germany, and Ireland. Jerry has authored and published four books. Washtub Jerry is the fifth-generation descendant of South Dakota homesteaders. Jerry recently successfully worked with a neighbor's filly from one week to a yearling. Working alone, Jerry succeeded in training the filly to come to him. Very skittish at first, she later routinely came to Jerry even though she was far away in the pasture. He earned her trust to where he rubbed her face, mouth, neck, and body and removed a thorny stick from her mane.

More about Washtub Jerry

Raised in the Wasatch mountains, Kaden Miner is a young songwriter who focuses on telling the stories of the people who make their living from the land. Inspired by the likes of Ian Tyson, Brenn Hill, and Chris LeDoux, he strives to paint an honest and raw picture of the West. He draws from firsthand experiences working on ranches and breaking horses to bring a personal perspective to his listeners.

Jo's great-grandfather was an original settler of several of the early towns of southern Utah, northern Arizona and Nevada. By the time her grandfather, Asa, was born, the family had settled in Kanab, Utah and had also claimed grazing lands and farm ground in northern Arizona. That is where she grew up, raising cattle and hay on some pretty dry country in that high desert around Fredonia, Arizona. She now lives in central Utah, on a small farm where she battles bad weather and old equipment, which maybe explains the origins of her poetry. Some of Jo's stories are from the old settlement period, others from her life in Coconino County, but most try to make sense of the frustration, hardship and joy of working the land in the beautiful Sevier River Valley. Her stories are never falsehoods; sometimes maybe stretch the truth a bit, or try to explain something in a better light - or bemoan the pain and injustice of a situation she has probably put herself into! - but as most Cowboy Poets do realize, life is the best storyteller. She wants to share her stories with you.

Jo Kirkwood has been named female poet of the year by the Academy of Western Artists. Her work has been featured in magazines, anthologies, and other publications and she regularly performs in festivals and venues throughout the west.

More about Jo Lynne Kirkwood

Kristyn Harris, of Burleson, Texas, 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.

Kristyn 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 herd of black angus cattle, working her newest colt, or trick riding.

Her most recent album, “A Place to Land”, was awarded Outstanding Western Album by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum for 2020.

More about Kristyn Harris

Retiring to the mountains after a lifetime buying and selling cattle in Kansas City, Jack Schmidt made his home in Fremont County, Wyoming, in 2005. He was an outfitter cook in both the Bridger Teton and Shoshone National Forests as well as teamster for wagon trains on Togwotee Pass. He started Rocky Mountain Dutch Oven Cooking and has taught Dutch oven cooking in Wyoming, Montana, and Utah. He is most proud of cooking an entire beef in a giant Dutch oven for a friend's anniversary party. He is a founding member of Fremont Local Foods and regularly speaks about recapturing revenue through increasing infrastructure for local meat production.

Jack will be reciting poetry about his recipes as the audience tries to guess what he will be making. Then, audience members will be able to have a hands-on experience in helping Jack get ingredients ready to cook. At the end, you will be able to sample all of the recipes! Hints and tips will be given to care for Dutch Ovens.

He will also lead the Stacked Dutch Oven demonstration near the covered Grandview Park pavillion from 9AM to Noon on Saturday. Bring your camp / folding chairs. Jack will be reciting poetry about his recipes as the audience tries to guess what he will be making. Then, audience members will be able to have a hands-on experience in helping Jack get ingredients ready to cook. At the end, you will be able to sample all of the recipes! Hints and tips will be given to care for Dutch Ovens.

As a second-generation farrier, Andy Nelson has the experience and the talents and humor to bring authenticity and entertainment to an audience. Raised in Oakley, Idaho, Andy traveled the Great Basin of southern Idaho, northern Utah and northern Nevada with his father on farrier jobs, from the time he was a child until he went off to college, and while in college at Utah State University, he continued to shoe horses for the USU Horsemanship Program. Now Andy lives in Pinedale, Wyoming, where among other things, he and his wife Jaclyn raise horses and children. Andy his farrier brother Jim, co-host the "Clear Out West (C.O.W.) Radio" weekly syndicated radio show, and the brothers are in demand as announcers at regional rodeos.

More about Andy Nelson