From Homer to Cowboy Poetry

The highlight of Friday was the first panel in the morning: "Poetry over the Years" with two young, promising talents: Vogue Robinson - an Afroamerican poetry slammer, improv artist and poetry teacher - and Joshua Dugat - a highly intellectual young guy who seems to have studied everything from Homer and Shakespeare to cowboy poetry and recited by heart. They were in good company with one of the old-hands in the business: John Dofflemyer, a Californian full-time rancher of about 70 years, who never left his birthplace (and has ancestors in Bavaria - as we got to know from him). These completely different guys had an interesting conversation about what poetry is, how it originates, how it should be presented, etc.


Besides that, we had a good mixture of poetry and music. We listened to Matt Robertson (left pic) and to Tish Hinojosa from San Antonio/TX with her band, presenting Techano music - quite another style of music! Also, we got to know Ryan & Hoss Fritz, a father-son-duo.

For a change, we mixed in some "Open Mic", too (below). Everybody can register in the morning for these presentations, hobby musicians and poets of all kinds.

We got a chance to see Waddie Mitchell again, a local rancher, who was crucial for the founding of the NCPG and one of the favs of the public. The room was packed and the presentation perfect. Waddie seems to be one of few artists, who nowadays also performs nationally. Most of the artists have a bread-and-butter job, mostly they are ranchers, cowboys/ranch-hands, rodeo cowboys, wranglers or horse breeders/trainers and just perform (and write) on the side, as a passion.

We noticed that in Elko mainly three geographical groups are represented: one from the Northern Rocky Mountain States (Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Dakotas) plus Colorado and Utah, one from Nevada and California, one from Arizona/New Mexico, and, smaller groups from Canada (Alberta) and Texas with a little Alabama and Florida mixed in. The unusual thing with this festival is that the general public - advanced in age, we lowered the average age statistics - intermingles with the artists and vice-versa. The artists are attending performances of their colleagues, there is no competition at all, no prizes to win, but enormous camaraderie and friendship among them. And, they are easily approachable, modest and polite, always willing to talk and to sign books.

Here a couple of pics from the evening show: Ned LeDoux (son of the famous country musician Chris), Corb Lund and "word-wrangler" Paul Zarzyski's fancy cowboy tie: