May 21, 2009

Waddie Mitchell, top entertainers

on tap in downtown Ritzville

The 2009 event features an expanded free entertainment schedule that includes nationally known, top-name western entertainers in cowboy poetry, traditional cowboy and western music, humorous renditions and a cross between the Texas shuffle and The Bakersfield Sound mingle with artists in businesses and on the streets of downtown Ritzville.

Headlining the weekend is Waddie Mitchell, known as the Buckaroo Poet, performing two free shows on Saturday and Sunday, May 23 and 24.

Nationally recognized for his work as a cowboy poet, Mitchell is a true ranch hand, having managed a 36,000-acre ranch in Lee-Jiggs, Nev.

From his earliest days on the remote Nevada ranches where his father worked, Waddie was immersed in the cowboy way of entertaining, the art of spinnin’ tales in rhyme and meter that came to be called cowboy poetry, a Western tradition that is as rich as the lifestyle that gave birth to it.

In 1984, he helped organize the internationally recognized Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering and gave his first public performance.

Mitchell has performed internationally for audiences from Los Angeles to New York, Zurich to Melbourne, and all points in between. With television appearances ranging from The Tonight Show, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, TNN, The History Channel, PBS and BBC, Waddie has also been featured in People, Life, New York Times, USA Today, Fortune, National Geographic, Wall Street Journal and the Official Program for Super Bowl XXX, along with numerous other appearances, performances, articles and books.

Singer, songwriter, rancher, horseman and the world-famous Yahoo!® yodeler, Wylie Gustafson will lend his amazing vocal talents to the show.

His music, a blend of Western swing, classic country, cowboy and folk, is rooted in a life of hard work and trail dust. He continues to operate a ranch in Dusty, Wash., and is an accomplished cutting horse enthusiast who was the 2005 NCHA Western National Finals Champion.

Gustafson’s performance schedule has included the Spirit of the West Gathering in Ellensburg as well as the Library of Congress, Richmond Folk Festival and live performances at the National Finals Rodeo.

Juni Fisher, the recipient of the Western Heritage Museum’s 2009 Wrangler Award for Most Outstanding Traditional Western Album, will also perform.

While studying Equine Science at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, she rode young horses for her customers, and became known as a good horse show “catch rider.”

She trained cowhorses from snaffle bitters to bridle horses, winning her first Snaffle Bit Futurity (IARCHA) in 1981.

A local band asked Fisher to play rhythm guitar as well as sing leads and backups after she moved to Califorinia in 1984. Members of the noted Rancheros Vistadores, an elite group of ranchers from across the nation, noticed her singing around town, which led her to working L.A. area clubs with another popular country band, which was also playing western and cowboy music.

Rockin’ HW, a trio that strives to preserve the Cowboy tradition and Western life through performances of traditional and original cowboy poetry and western song, combines the talents of Michael Whitaker, Morry Walter and Alan Halvorson.

 Rockin’ HW performs extensively across the West from Washington to Arizona. Whitaker’s book, “The Gathering,” was an AWA nominee for best cowboy poetry book in 2006. The CD, “Runs in Our Blood,” was nominated as one of the 10 best Cowboy Poetry CDs by the Western Music Association for 2007. “A Night ‘Round the Wagon” finished in the top 10 in three categories for 2008.

Cimarron Sue and Nevada Slim, “Minstrels of the Old West,” will make a return appearance, strolling through the venue delivering a spirited interpretation of traditional western music and the music of early country legends.

Nominated for six different awards in 2008 by the Western Music Association, Bruce and Susan Matley continue to honor working cowboys and cowgirls, as well as those who rode their ranges in the movies.

The duo, performing as Nevada Slim and Cimarron sue, draws from a large repertoire of songs and cowboy poetry to provide glimpses of the people who built the American west, blending music with storytelling to lend historic perspective to the show.

The diverse duo also offers the music of early country legends, such as Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Marty Robbins, Johnny and June Carter Cash and Jimmy Rogers.


Don’t miss your chance to chat with Wyatt Earp and “Doc” Holliday while at the show! Members of the Ritzville Community Theatre troupe will serve as ambassadors during the show, portraying a specific character from the ‘wild west,’ including Black Bart, Virgil Earp, Big Nose Kate, Kitty Leroy and Calamity Jane.

The art show committee invited the cast to participate in this year’s show as a way to enhance the theme of the event and increase the number of local residents who are present and able to welcome out-of-town visitors.

Saturday night a street dance wakes up the downtown business district at 8:30 p.m. with traditional honky tonk band Bob Manning and Nashville West.

During the past 20 years, Bob Manning and Nashville West, as “The Honky Tonk Road Show” have managed to combine the vintage electric sound of Bakerfield Fame and the smooth swing and shuffle feel of South Texas into one high energy, family friendly stage show that is guaranteed to please audiences of all ages.

“The Honky Tonk Road Show” is complete with vintage and original music, entertaining stage humor, stories and tales of The Honky Tonk Trail as well as “Vintage Cowboy Clothes.”