Bards of the West

April is (among other things) National Poetry Month. And I am glad to say that cowboys and poetry have a long association together. Cowboys have often been known to carry books in their saddlebags and more than a few have tried their hand at writing, in both prose and poetry. Long before the phenomenon of Country Music there were cowboys experiementing with the craft of versification. If you would like to read some of the cowboy poetry that has been and is still being written today, check out some of these titles from our catalog.

Some anthologies

Titles on compact disc

Cowboy Poetry Classics (a Smithsonian Folkways recording)

Elko: a cowoy's gathering (various artists)

Some titles by individual authors

Poems and stories of a saltgrass cowboy by Bob Kahla

Echoes of the past; the cowboy poetry of Melvin Whipple

I remember by Lloyd Shelby (also on CD)

Rainman by Lloyd Shelby (also on CD)

Red Steagall presents Cowboy, the legend, the legacy (DVD)

Special Occasion

Christmas cowboy style by Waddie Mitchell

And some by women

Somewhere in the West: Texas women who left a legacy: poems & legends