Hot Club of Cowtown

You’d think a band from Austin, Texas with the word “Cowtown” in its name spends its time off from touring herding cattle at a West Texas ranch or maybe in Nashville writing songs about whiskey and loose women. Not the Hot Club of Cowtown. “We recently took a band vacation to the Gypsy Festival at St. Maries de la Mer in the South of France,” says the band’s fiddler and vocalist, Elana James. Whit Smith, Hot Club’s guitar player and vocalist, is a regular at the prestigious Djangofest Northwest in Whidbey, Island, Washington, and bass player Jake Erwin has the Hungarian folk band Csokolom in regular rotation on his home stereo.

“Our band is fiddle, guitar, and bass, and they can do anything together. We’ve always played a combination of hot jazz and Western swing, but it’s been really a joy to finally distill part of our essence and serve up a record that is purely jazzy,” says James, who in fact was once a horse wrangler in Colorado, as well as a former student of classical music at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France. Says Smith, “Once Elana became aware that in jazz music and swing, you could express yourself more in improvisation, I think that attracted her to it. She still likes classical, and I do too.” Smith grew up hearing his parents play lots of folk music, especially acoustic blues, but as a teenager he naturally rebelled and turned sharply toward hard rock, which still informs his approach to hot jazz and Western swing. The impression that the band is in some way a country act, especially in the current climate of American popular music, is somewhat misleading since the Hot Club’s influences have always been as much the musette music of the smoky bistros of 1930s Paris as they are the hoedowns and Western swing of the mythic American West.

Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that the Hot Club of Cowtown, on their seventh studio album, is finally releasing Rendezvous in Rhythm, a thrilling display of this Texas trio’s virtuosity and its elegant, more European inspirations…

Contact Information:

Contact: Elana James
(512) 470-1259
Email:

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Ronstadt Generations

Ronstadt Generations (Trio)
Representing five generations in North America, Ronstadt Generations continues the family’s musical traditions with Michael J. Ronstadt (younger brother of Linda) and his sons, Michael G. and Petie. Multi-instrumentalists and solo performers in their own right, they present an exciting repertoire that preserves the traditional Southwestern and Mexican songs of their heritage while offering innovative original material. New compositions place them on the cutting edge of multiple, blended genres, stretching the boundaries of folk, blues, jazz and beyond. Rich harmonies sung in English and Spanish are accompanied by outstanding cello and guitars. Individually and together, Stateside and across the pond, the trio’s worldwide touring and recording credits include such diverse artists as Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos, Dixie Hummingbirds, David Bromberg, Nydia Rojas, Tish Hinojosa, Muriel Anderson, and Mariachi Vargas, to name a few.

Ronstadt Generations y Los Tucsonenses (6-piece ensemble)
In 2012 three veteran musicians -- Alex Flores, Sam Eagon and Aaron Emery – came on board with versatile talents to form the six-piece ensemble Ronstadt Generations y Los Tucsonenses (the Tucsonans). First performing with Ronstadt Generations at a local Tucson gig, the sextet cemented the relationship with the recording Prelude. Alex, Sam and Aaron bring to the table a variety of experience and influences. Playing tenor saxophone, bass and drums, respectively, they add a colorful dimension to an already powerful presentation that respects tradition while exploring innovation.

The Genesis of Ronstadt Generations
A family Thanksgiving gathering in 2009 – more precisely, an after-dinner, all-night jam session between father and sons gave birth spontaneously to the performance group Ronstadt Generations. Michael J. (guitar/mandolin/mandocello/vocals) found himself running through generations of material with his two sons, Michael G. (cello/mandolin/guitar/vocals) and Petie (guitar/bass/vocals). This session evolved into a rehearsal as the trio played the passages again and again, figuring out harmonies and developing arrangements. Ronstadt Generations was born. Steeped in family music traditions dating to the 1840s when his great-grandfather emigrated from Germany and settled in the Southwest, Michael J. Ronstadt – younger brother of renowned singer Linda Ronstadt – was just wrapping up seven years touring internationally with the Santa Cruz River Band. Simultaneously, his sons Michael G. and Petie had become increasingly engaged in individual music endeavors. That jam session became a flashpoint, providing inspiration and impetus for Michael J. to return to his music roots and to create a project to explore, preserve and share the rich musical history of the Ronstadt family. That legacy, noted in a number of history books and publications, began in the late 1800s with his grandfather, Federico “Fred” Ronstadt, and is an important piece of the fabric of Tucson and the entire Southwest region of the United States. Today, that long history continues with Ronstadt Generations. (Click here to jump to history.)

Contact Information:

Contact: Ronstadt Generations
To buy merchandise call Petie @ (520) 730-5765
For technical questions call Petie @ (520) 730-5765

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Dave Stamey

The Western Music Association once again named Dave Stamey Male Performer of the Year for 2011, the fifth time he's received the award.  Also in November, True West Magazine named Dave the Reader's Choice for Best Solo Western Musician.  In addition, his new CD, 12 Mile Road, was released in 2011 with impressive reviews. "Authenticity is the hallmark of his work."

 True contemporary cowboys are hard to come by, but Dave Stamey keeps their spirit alive in his musical accolades & laments.  Dave's music captures the modern buckaroo spirit like a lariat.  Set to the boot-tapping beat of his guitar, Dave makes it seem effortless as he sings (or yodels) melodic tales about "the plight of today's rancher."  Cowboys and Indians Magazine has called him "the Charley Russell of Western Music."  Western Horseman Magazine has declared his "Vaquero Song" to be one of the greatest Western songs of all time.  In 2010 and 2011 True West Magazine named him Best Living Western Solo Musician.  Dave Stamey has been a cowboy, a mule packer, a dude wrangler, and is now one of the most popular Western entertainers working today.  He has been voted four times Entertainer of the Year, five times Male Performer of the Year and four times Songwriter of the Year by the Western Music Association, and received the Will Rogers Award from the Academy of Western Artists. He's delighted audiences in twenty states, and finds that he prefers this to being stomped by angry horses.

Contact Information:

Contact: Dave Stamey
(805) 705-1329
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Mary Kaye

Mary Kaye (Knaphus) is a multiple award winning Western Entertainer and tours extensively throughout the Western United States and Canada. She is a native born Texan and as a young woman ventured off to Utah where she "married her a cowboy.” Her husband’s family has deep Western roots that go back six generations. Mary Kaye now resides on a century old pioneer homestead in a small Western town in central Utah where her large family is involved in cowboying, horse training, and all things Western. She has been married to her husband Brad for 27 years, they have ten children.

Mary Kaye is the Western Music Association's 2013 Female Performer of the Year and Songwriter of the Year as well as True West Magazine's 2013 "Best Solo Musician” of the year. She received a 2013 Spur Award for "Best Western Song" from the Western Writer's of America. She was also awarded the 2012 Song of the Year award from the Western Music Association. In addition, she is the Academy of Western Artists' 2011 Western Female Performer of the Year and the Western Music Association’s 2010 Female Vocalist of the Year.

In April of 2013 Mary Kaye released her latest western album, The Dawn and The Dusk, to rave revues. It is currently #1 on the western music charts and was nominated for the 2013 Western Album of the Year by the WMA. Her 2012 album, No Wilder Place, received excellent reviews in the Western Horseman and American Cowboy magazines and debuted on the western music charts at #1. Her 2010 release, Clean Outta Luck, was on the western music charts for 12 months, went as high as #4 on the charts, and garnered a Song of the Year nomination from the WMA.

Well known western artist Maynard Dixon declared, "The spirit of the West sings in every soul." Mary Kaye believes this and shares this spirit in every performance.

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Paul Zarzyski

Paul has been a featured performer at the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering for the past 26 years, has toured Australia and England, and has recited at the National Book, Folk, and Storytelling Festivals, The ProRodeo Hall of Fame, The Library of Congress, The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage and with the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also featured in 1999 on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, aired from The Mother Lode Theater in Butte, Montana.

Paul Zarzyski, the recipient of the 2005 Governor’s Arts Award for Literature, has been spurring the words wild across the open range of the page and calling it “Poetry” for 40 years. In the early ‘70s, he heeded Horace Greeley’s “go west young man, go west” advice and received his Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from The University of Montana, where he studied with Richard Hugo. In the same breath, he took up a second lucrative vocation—bareback bronc riding—and rode the amateur, the ProRodeo, and Senior circuits into his early forties.

Contact Information:

Contact: Paul Zarzyski
(406) 453-1856

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Gary Allegretto & Ian Espinoza

“Best of the West Award” winning artist Gary Allegretto has teamed up with virtuoso musician and long-time friend Ian Espinoza to deliver what Western Way Magazine calls "one powerhouse duo" and American Cowboy Magazine recently called “quality music put out by quality people who truly embody cowboy values.” 

Indeed, their new CD release recently skyrocketed to #1 on the Western music radio charts and they are current nominee finalists for two AWA Awards (Best Western Duo and Best Western CD). 

Together this unique and dynamic duo deliver captivating performances of exceptional musicianship (harmonica and guitar), soulful vocals, deep harmonies, and fun engaging songs that leave audiences at once breathless and cheering for more. 

And for those who want to learn to play the harmonica, don't miss Gary's popular and highly entertaining "Learn to Play Cowboy Harmonica Instantly" workshop in which the "Harmonicowboy" provides everything needed for complete beginners to learn to play Western songs on the harmonica.

Contact Information:

Contact: Gary Allegretto and Ian Espinoza
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Mike Beck

Mike Beck is a seasoned musician and horseman. Mentored in horsemanship by icons Tom and Bill Dorrance, Mike has translated his experiences into a way of life that has found its way into his songwriting, storytelling and guitar playing.

He has written songs with the legendary Ian Tyson, and toured with Ramblin' Jack Elliot. Soaking up their authenticity and free spiritedness, Mike writes songs that are stripped down to the essentials of life. Never sentimental, yet evoking the most human of emotions, Mike transports his audiences to his world of majestic landscapes, nonconformist eccentrics, and mythical horses.

Contact Information:

Contact:
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Richard Elloyan

Richard Elloyan is one happy guy! He’s just released his fourth CD “Back In Heaven.” Joining once again with his talented producer, Steven Swinford, they have created yet another compilation of lyrical and visually graphic stories of the modern West. Richard’s love for Nevada, songs of the land, and unrequited love are beautifully arranged and sung in the rich voice we have all come to love.

Richard began singing his western music and telling his stories at a home town open mic event in Dayton, Nevada back in 1997. Surprised by the reception of the crowd to the song “Carolina” (now on his “Big Nevada Sky” CD) Richard began performing and reciting the songs and stories he had been writing for the past thirty years. He hasn’t slowed down since. He’s a far cry from the teenager whose mother made him practice his guitar in the bathroom!

Raised in Virginia City, Nevada (yes, of Bonanza fame) Richard had the unique opportunity to grow up surrounded by the history of the developing west. Stories of cowboys coming to town, Mark Twain’s Enterprise, and mining claims fueled the creative fires growing in the young boy who roamed the rural streets of Virginia City. Glorious canyons and spectacular sunsets framed the activities of the day. Starry skies and snowy nights were the stuff of dreams. These are what drew Richard to the land and the solitary existence of the cowboys and cowgirls of the west.

After an enlistment in the Navy, Richard pursued his passion for the land by attending the University of Nevada at Reno and receiving a degree in Range Management. Working for the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forestry Service Richard was able to work some of the most beautiful land in the country. As an Environmental Health Specialist Richard travels the rural roads of Nevada and gathers inspiration.

When a friend of Richard’s became the Cow Boss at the Flying M Ranch in Yerington, Nevada many hours were spent working cows, mending fences and even irrigating fields. t was by the fire one fall gather in the light of a full moon that Richard was given the idea for one of his signature songs “Buckaroo Moon.” The songs keep coming.

From local fundraisers to the Arvada Center in Colorado Richard paints the pictures of the great expanse of rural America and the people who live there. Come along, listen to his songs, read his poetry and you’ll see why Dave Stamey says Richard “is a songwriter with so much talent it should be illegal!”

Contact Information:

Contact: Richard Elloyan
(775) 721-1354 or (775) 230-5951

Email: at

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Dave Bourne

Dave Bourne has been playing piano professionally since his first job in 1958 at the Calico Saloon at Knott’s Berry Farm. He has produced several CDs of authentic old west saloon piano music. QRS Music has released his Saloon Piano Vol. I for their player pianos. His music can be heard extensively on the HBO series “Deadwood” where he can also be seen as the piano player in the Gem Saloon.

Dave Bourne has been playing piano professionally since his first job in the Calico Saloon at Knott’s Berry Farm in 1958. He is a graduate of USC with a degree in Music Education. He has played bass and recorded with the “Wagonmasters”, the cowboy group who entertained in the Wagon Camp at Knott’s from 1955 until 1968. He has released three albums playing cornet with his “Dawn of the Century Ragtime Orchestra” and three cassettes and one CD playing guitar with his western singing group, the Lobo Rangers. He has led and recorded (on tenor horn,) with the Resurrection Brass Band, a 20 piece New Orleans marching band. He has produced six CDs called “Saloon Piano” featuring authentic melodies of the Old West. The CD, “19th Century Favorites and Rarities” features Dave playing piano, cornet, alto horn, tenor horn, sousaphone, banjo, string bass, and piano in a re-creation of an early town band.

QRS Music has released his Saloon Piano Volume I for their player pianos. His music can be heard extensively on the HBO series “Deadwood” where he can also be seen as the piano player in the Gem Saloon.

“Old songs often change dramatically over the years, so I try to use the earliest published versions. While I don't play the sheet music note for note, I do try to present these melodies in their original form and establish a body of work that remains true to the intent of the composers.”

If any of you are fans of HBO’s hit series “Deadwood”, then you just might find it interesting to spend an evening with Dave Bourne, who was the piano player in the Gem Saloon. Dave will share stories and music of the old west’s saloon piano players, their repertoire, style, and influences.

He has been playing saloon piano music since his first job in 1958 at the Calico Saloon at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. He has produced six CDs of authentic old west saloon piano music and can be heard extensively throughout all three seasons of “Deadwood.”

Contact Information:

Contact: Dave Bourne
(818) 991-2479

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Buffalo Bryan Marr

Buffalo Bryan Marr, founder of Western Heritage Records, the Lost Canyon Rangers and the Cross Town Cowboys is now performing as a solo singer-song writer. With his previous groups Buff has been blessed to have performed at the major cowboy poetry and music events across the south western United States. “The people that you meet are the most genuine that you will find in this day and age.”

In 2012 Buff was nominated for "Best Instrumentalist of the Year" by the Academy of Western Artists. His original song “Beans” was nominated in both “Best Original Traditional Western Song” and “Best Original Western Swing Song” categories for 2012.

Once a rock musician, Buffalo Bryan rejected the rock n’ roll lifestyle to get in touch with his “inner cowboy.” Western music is as much a part of “Buff” as any member of his body.

He finds strength and inspiration in the examples set by his cowboy heroes. Roy, Dale, Gene, Hoppy and all the rest have left us a great legacy of values and morals. Buffalo Bryan endeavors to live by their example every day of his life.

Buff has been a bass player most of his life. Now he is playing the guitar, writing and singing again. “This is something that I must do. My success or failure depends on me, not others.” “I am driven to it; I play Western music because it is part of who I am as a Christian man.”

Contact Information:

Contact: Buffalo Bryan Marr
(661) 269-0917 — 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (PST)

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Dennis Golden

Dennis Golden was raised in the small ranching community of Cedarville, California. He spent most of his youth working on area ranches. Despite deviating into advertising and video production after graduating with a degree in Journalism from the University of Nevada, Reno, the cowboy and ranching lifestyle, continues to influence his work.

He was introduced to cowboy poetry in cow camps and on ranches in his early years and has been writing and reciting cowboy poetry for nearly 30 years.

During a seven year period, in which he says his cowboy poetry hobby ran amuck, he performed professionally with “Texas” Tom Weatherby, locally, at The Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering, The Genoa Cowboy Festival and across the West.

In 2010, he formed Golden Productions with his son Gabe. Collaborating with PBS, they have produced four documentaries to increase awareness of the rancher’s stewardship role in utilizing the West’s public lands to help feed the nation. The series has become the most award winning series in the history of PBS affiliate, KNPB.

Producer Dennis Golden will present two “Stewards of the Rangeland” documentaries at The Genoa Cowboy Poetry Festival. He will expand on the challenges faced in the production of these documentaries and answer questions from the audience.

Friday, May 2nd Presentation

“The Endangered West” explores the consequences to mining, green energy, grazing and the rural economy of the West if the Sage Grouse is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Saturday May 3rd Presentation

“Rangeland Under Fire” depicts the impact to ranchers and our rural economy from the epic wildfires that raged across the West in 2012 and the challenges expanding wild horse populations present for public land livestock operations and rangeland habitat.