02/14/08 Preserving the Cowboy

Preserving the Cowboy. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Don Edwards spends most of his time sharing his love of the cowboy. Edwards has been performing classic cowboy songs at festivals and gatherings all over the U.S. and it's because it's something he loves. EDWARDS: It just was something I've always loved and always done and I took little detours here and there but pretty much I was pretty focused on the cowboy deal when I was about 9 years old you know and just kind of went from there and then really started professionally about 1960 actually. Edwards says that when the Elko, Nevada Cowboy Poetry Gathering began in 1984 things changed. EDWARDS: That was kid of the turning point that focused on the cowboy music and the poetry thing. That was always around but it just sort of laid there mixed up somewhere in folk music and it came out by itself. It was just an amazing thing; it was like this whole new career started. The popularity of cowboy gatherings has increased since the first one in Elko and many people are discovering something that they have been looking for according to Edwards. EDWARDS: The further into the future people go the more they look back. I really always believe that. They look back to something that has value to it, something that's got substance. You know they look for all these things that are missing today In true cowboy style Edwards was raised in the East and migrated west. His early cowboy influences were colored by many styles. EDWARDS: I came from the books of Will James because Will James was my first introduction to cowboys being raised in the East. That kind of inspired the cowboy mystique and of course I had all those western movies I went to every Saturday afternoon. Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy and all that you know but that's what inspired me for all this. Jimmy Rogers was a huge influence to me. I loved the old country clues music. Edwards has many other influences from the 20's and 30's and says that even Marty Robbins was a big influence on his music. Edwards got a boost in 2005 when his recording of "Coyotes" was included in the documentary "Grizzly Man." You can catch Don this weekend at the Ellensburg Cowboy Gathering. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.