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Event Overview
Hal Cannon
Hal Cannon is the founding Director of the Western Folklife Center and its famous
child, the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. He has published a dozen books
including and recordings on the folk arts of the West and has received three Wrangler
Awards from the Cowboy Hall of Fame, the 1998 Will Rogers Lifetime Achievement Award,
the American Folklore Society’s Botkin Award, and both the Arts and Humanities Governor
Awards in Utah. He currently directs Media Programs for the Center and along with
producer Taki Telonidis completed an Emmy Award winning TV documentary, “Why the
Cowboy Sings.” That aired on PBS. They also produce regular features for NPR’s Weekend
Edition Sunday including their regular radio series called, "What's in a Song."
Hal is highly sought humanities speaker and educator. For more on Hal, please visit www.halcannon.com
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Roy Kady
Born and raised in the Four Corners region of the Navajo Reservation, Roy Kady now lives in northeastern Arizona,
in the Teec Nos Pos area know as Goat Springs. He learned rug weaving as a young boy at the age of 9yrs. old,
from his grandmother, who learned it from her mother. He still has that first effort, a small unfinished rug,
rolled up and stored away. Roy thinks he didn't finish it because "It was just stripes. I wanted to do a design."
Before Roy discovered his love for weaving, he was involved with a variety of art forms. He is a self-taught contemporary
artist specializing in charcoal and pastel drawings, wood carving, basketry, photography, and clothing designs. Currently,
he is a paid consultant in the local school where he works with students in everything from pottery and folk art, to textiles
and simple beaded jewelry. He also considers dancing as one of his arts. Roy says, "I try to touch base with everything."
"My work is tiring, but satisfying," Roy says. "It's meditation for me. It soothes and calms my mind. I hope that the people who see my rugs and buy them understand this, that it's my mind that they are buying. I hope they try to feel my presence of happiness in my rugs." For more on Roy and Navajo weaving, please visit www.weavinginbeauty.com
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Rosalie Sorrels
Sorrels thinks of herself as a storyteller who uses music to advance the story.
She has been singing professionally since 1960. Her 17 albums and countless performances
represent a vast repertoire of original material. Her accaimed albums, Be Careful
There's A Baby in the House, and Then Came the Children have been
reissued and followed by the publication of Way Out in Idaho, Idaho folk
songs, stories and poems. Sorrels lives in a family cabin on Grimes Creek, near
Boise, and is fond of calling herself eccentric.
Rosalie is an American folk singer-songwriter began her public career as a singer
and collector of traditional folksongs in the late 1950s. Currently "retired,"
she still performs in select concerts and festivals. Her career of social activities,
storytelling, teaching, learning, songwriting, collecting folk songs, performing,
and recording has spanned six decades.
Rosalie recorded more than 20 albums including the 2005 Grammy
nominated album "My Last Go 'Round" (Best Traditional Folk Album.) She
authored two books and wrote the introduction to her mother's book. In 1990 Sorrels
was the recipient of the World Folk Music Association's Kate Wolf Award. In 1999
she received the National Storytelling Network Circle of Excellence Award for "exceptional
commitment and exemplary contributions to the art of storytelling." In 2000
she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Idaho. In
2001 she was awarded the Boise Peace Quilt Award. She had been featured several
times on National Public Radio and profiled on Idaho Public Television. As a local
Idahoan, Rosalie depicts the culture and influences of rural Idaho. For more on Rosalie, please visit www.rosaliesorrels.com
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Brenn Hill
At 16, the Utah born singer/songwriter performed at the famed National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV. He
recorded his first album when he was barely 20 and soon became a popular performer
on the Western music circuit. His debut album, RANGEFIRE, earned Brenn the Rising
Star Award from the Academy of Western Artists (AWA).
Subsequent albums, such as 1999's DEEPER THAN MUD and 2000's TRAIL
THROUGH YESTERDAY continued to advance Brenn's career, with the latter project
earning the AWA's Album of the Year. In 2001, he received the Western Music
Association's Crescendo Award, and earned a reputation as a young artist whose music
filled a key niche. His songs paint a vivid portrait of the modern Mountain West and in
doing so they bring that unique culture to music lovers in both rural and urban settings.
The accolades continued with the
2004 release of ENDANGERED, which prompted the AWA to name Brenn their male
vocalist of the year. Recorded at Nashville's famed Ocean Way studio with producer
Eddie Schwartz, ENDANGERED's sonic quality and the lyrical depth in the songs made
it a landmark album for Brenn, one that garnered exposure beyond the Western genre
as it was embraced by Americana radio as well as stations on the competitive Texas
music circuit.
WHAT A MAN'S GOT TO DO showcases a gifted artist in full creative stride. Brenn's
writing is rife with cinematic imagery that connects the listener to the characters and
places in his songs. "The music is a way that I can try to bring that lifestyle back to the
forefront of people's hearts and minds, and it gives me a sense of purpose. I feel like I'm
accomplishing something with my music. If I can activate the people who live this
Western lifestyle as well as the people who are fascinated with this lifestyle, maybe I've
accomplished something beyond making music." For more on Brenn, please visit www.brennhill.com
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Mick Lucey
Mick Lucey, an Irishman with a thick brogue, came out to Oregon to go sheepherding
in January of 1949 at the age of 24. He spent eight years out on the range.
He loves to tell stories of that time, and being Irish, he has an innate and wonderful
ability to do so. He also recites poetry of his own and from other poets that
deal with everything from sheepherding to stories of leprechauns and witches that
entertained him and anyone who might have been visiting his camp.The only
possession that he brought with him to America was a button accordion, and he is
a talented traditional Irish musician.
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Linda and Carolyn Dufurrena
Carolyn Dufurrena began her career in the Great Basin as a geologist. On a mapping project in remote northwestern Nevada, she fell in love with the desert and with rancher Tim Dufurrena, who later became her husband. Working as a rancher led her to write the compelling essays and texts that accompany the powerful photography of her mother-in-law, Linda Dufurrena, in the acclaimed Fifty Miles from Home: Riding the Long Circle on a Nevada Family Ranch, published by University of Nevada Press (2002), which earned her the Silver Pen Award, given by the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. She also co-authored Sharing Fencelines: Three Friends Write from Nevada's Sagebrush Corner, a collection of personal essays about the importance of connection to the land and to the people who live in it, which was published by the University of Utah Press (2002). In addition to ranching and writing, she has been an educator in remote rural schools in Humboldt County for 15 years. She currently teaches grades 3 through 8 at a two-room school in Denio, Nevada, 25 miles from her home at Quinn River Ranch. Dufurrena's insights regarding the male dominated world of the ranching industry as well as the traditional role of the cowboy are brought into a female perspective by the examination of her personal evolution reflected in her poetry.
Linda Dufurrena photographs alll aspects of life in her desert corner of Nevada. She finds her subject matter in the landscape, and in the everchanging patterns of the desert atmosphere. She photographs the creatures who inhabit the wild spaces, and the men and women who live and work there. Her vision of the world is translated into photographic image in her workshop at the Dufurrena ranch northwest of Winnemucca, Nevada.
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Francisco Colqui
"I started herding sheep in Callao when I was 19 years old," said Francisco Colqui, a native of Peru and now living in Hinckley. "I didn't speak a word of English. I was one of the first sheepherders from Peru." Colqui eventually learned English, got married and started a family. He is now employed in Millard County.
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