All Star Cowboy Poetry and Music Show

Andy Hedges is a songster, reciter, storyteller, guitarist, and collector of cowboy songs and poems. The son of a schoolteacher and a rodeo cowboy turned preacher, Andy was born in Lubbock, Texas. He grew up in the small community of Tokio, Texas, where his family paid rent on an old farmhouse by looking after a few head of cattle. It was there that Andy fell in love with traditional music by listening to his father’s cassettes of cowboy songs.

Andy’s vast and varied repertoire includes cowboy poetry recitations, obscure western ballads, and the folk-blues of the working cowboy. He also hosts a podcast, Cowboy Crossroads which features in-depth interviews with fellow musicians and poets. Andy has performed many times with folk legend Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and the duo’s performance at the 60th Newport Folk Festival was named one of the “10 Best Things We Saw” by Rolling Stone. 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.

"Andy could very well carry on the traditions when all of us old guys are gone. I'd feel assured in knowing the music of our great American West was in good hands." - Don Edwards

“This cowboy songster is not just a contender, he’s the real deal.” – Tom Russell

"I've always admired Andy Hedges for his longstanding fascination for classic cowboy songs. He sings 'em with just the right amount of grit and wry cowpoke humor." - Michael Martin Murphey

"Andy is just the kind of artist I like. Deep into the tradition and carrying it into the future with his own voice." - Jim Rooney

"He embodies the future of the tradition." - Waddie Mitchell

"Hedges blends tradition with vanguard..." - Jennifer Denison, Senior Editor, Western Horseman

“…Andy is at the epicenter of the collective beating heart of cowboy poetry and music. As an artist, and as a man, he is among the finest this renaissance has to offer.” – Randy Rieman

More about Andy Hedges

Terry Nash is a cattle rancher from the Grand Junction, Colo. area who lives the western life he writes and speaks about.

Never passing up a chance to say something, wherever folks will listen, Terry performs his poetry and classics for Gatherings throughout the West including this gathering in years past. He has been twice selected to perform at Elko, NV – the biggest cowboy poetry gathering in the country.

“All of us have a rural heritage in our past, even if it was multiple generations ago,“ says Nash. “This genre of music and poetry speaks to that heritage, and therefore speaks to each of us and helps us all recognize the commonality between all humanity.“

Terry was named the 2018 Male Poet of the Year by the International Western Music Assn. His CD, “A Good Ride“, won the 2018 Cowboy Poetry CD at the IWMA convention.

Terry Nash is one of the most sought-out poets around, due to his creative ability to put words together and deliver them in a captivating way.

A beef producer from Loma, Colorado, Terry knows what he's talking about and he knows how to draw you into his stories. His tales are of the West not seen from an interstate or from the bleachers at a rodeo.

He lives the life he writes about, and he's a master at showing it to you.

Terry performs in gatherings from Alpine TX to Elko NV, Bastrop TX to Prescott AZ, and all points between. He does private performances and banquet speaking and loves to emcee any event.

He is also co-founder/producer of the annual Western Slope Cowboy Gathering held every November in Grand Junction, CO.

In 2018, he won the International Western Music Association award for Male Poet of the Year, plus CD of the year for his latest, “A Good Ride.”

In 2021 Terry was awarded an IWMA “Special Achievement award for the book “Four Aces and A Queen.”

More about Terry Nash.

Dave Stamey has made it his life's work to celebrate the rural American west. In the past two decades he has recorded eleven albums of original music, travelled literally hundreds of thousands of miles and performed thousands of shows doing just that. He lives in the farthest north- eastern corner of Tulare County, California, and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains begin just outside his back door.

More about Dave Stamey.