Better than Nashville: Great Music in Elko

Today we've had it all: good music, creative poetry, big crowds. Boy, it got packed today and there were long lines forming to get into shows of the "old hands" in the business - e.g. Waddie Mitchell or Randy Rieman. Therefore, we switched to panels with new-to-us poets or musicians instead. Even they were packed, but we got in. In Elko, where all is a "big family affair", operated by volunteers mostly, press doesn't have any privileges. Which is fine.

Started the morning with a panel of "literary poetry" from master cowboy poet John Dofflemyer, paired with two young poets - Odermann and Forrest VanTuyl and female singer/songwriter Tracy Morrison.


There are different types of poets, the more "literary" like Dofflemyer, the funny ones, like Rodney Nelson, the "dark", pensive ones like Joel Nelson, and, many young ones somewhere inbetween. Some recite other famous peoples' poems, some only there own ones, some by heart, some reading. Some improvise, some are highly professional, most get along really well and there is big camaraderie, most are really approachable and intermingle with the public. Got to know a couple of real good young poets, like Jonathan Odermann from ND, Tom Swearingen from OR or musician & poet Forrest VanTuyl, who we also heard in concert with his band yesterday.

Fantastic music, too, especially the trio of the "3 generations": Michael Stevens, Andy Hedges and Dylan Clough, representing different styles of Western music. Loved Dylan for carrying on cowboy music with a unique voice and bluesy notes.


When it comes to musicality by far the best is "The American Songster" and Black cowboy Dom Flemons, GRAMMY Award Winner, music scholar, historian (for black cowboy music, a project for the Smithsonian Institution) and a multi-instrumentalist. He played on the banjo, fife, guitar, harmonica and with rhythm bones.

Next was an interesting presentation by historian Dr. Taylor (pic left) about African Americans in the West/in Nevada, followed by two other poetry panels in the afternoon, mostly poets we didn't know yet, among them Doris Daley from Alberta/Canada (pic below on left) and, Tom Swearingen (right pic). All rooms packed now to the limit. Lots of first-time visitors, mostly from California, many of them retired, not too many young people in the audience. Over the years we noticed that there are more young performers on stage, but audience remained the same: "Golden Agers", white couples, from all over the Western States and beyond.