40th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering: Full Schedule

The 40th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering—Be the Poem. Be the Song.
#cowboypoetrygathering #westernfolklifecenter #ncpg2025

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Schedule is subject to change. We recommend double-checking Sched regularly for the latest updates.

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9:00am PST

Diehards Ride Hard for the Gathering

Friday January 31, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am PST

Elko Convention Center - Auditorium

If you’re our type—the kind who is up and at ’em before the first birds, we’ll see you at this special morning show featuring Doris Daley, Hot Club of Cowtown, and Brigid & Johnny Reedy, with appearances by Waddie Mitchell and other guests. Kick off your Friday right with a chance to participate in a live auction and give in support of the Western Folklife Center’s mission. As a nonprofit, we are committed to keeping tickets affordable and accessible, but ticket revenue only covers a third of all we do. The rest comes from the generous support of folks like you!

A special show of support!

Artists & Special Guests

Doris Daley

"Doris Daley writes like Fanny Sperry Steele rode broncs—with skill, grace, and a lot of class," says Dave Stamey. Born and raised on the family ranch in the Alberta foothills, Doris is a favorite on stages throughout North America. She has performed at the Smithsonian Folklife... Read More →

Hot Club of Cowtown

Hot Club of Cowtown has been stunning audiences worldwide for over 20 years with its trademark blend of hot jazz, western swing, American songbook standards, and music from 1930s Paris and the American West. Elana James (fiddle, vocals) grew up in a musical family, and early on spent... Read More →

Waddie Mitchell

Waddie Mitchell was immersed in the cowboy way of entertaining on the Nevada ranches where his father worked. By age 10, he too was reciting poetry after long days of pushing cows and living off the land. Waddie recites the older classics as well as his own works, eloquently expressing... Read More →

Brigid & Johnny Reedy

Brigid Reedy is a singular young voice representing her beloved home state of Montana. A charismatic performer since the age of two when she first yodeled at the Pioneer Saloon, she has traveled widely, carrying with her boundless enthusiasm, grace, passion, and soul. An accomplished... Read More →

Friday January 31, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am PST
Elko Convention Center - Auditorium 700 Moren Way, Elko, NV 89801, USA

Poetry & Music, Ticketed

Ticket Type Ticketed

10:00am PST

Rodeo Swing

Friday January 31, 2025 10:00am - 12:00pm PST

Flag View Intermediate School

If your toes are tapping but you need some good moves, this is a perfect dance for you. Rodeo swing is the easiest form of swing dancing and the style you'll see at rodeo dances around the West, as well as at Gathering dances. Amy Mills will teach you the moves and keep you smiling, while Sam Platts & the Plainsmen provide live music. Geared to beginning and intermediate dancers, but all levels are welcome. You don't need a partner to attend.

Artists & Special Guests

Amy Mills

Amy Mills, a soul who simply cannot stay still when music is playing, returns to the Gathering every year to share her love of traditional dance with others. She is an accomplished dancer of many traditional styles, ranging from ballroom to Balkan, swing to Scandinavian. A past National... Read More →

Sam Platts & the Plainsmen

Sam Platts and the Plainsmen is an energetic Americana band that brings traditional country and western swing to modern audiences. Sam’s songwriting is in the vein of “old” country music, and his inspiration comes from rural, agricultural life and his family’s western heritage... Read More →

Friday January 31, 2025 10:00am - 12:00pm PST
Flag View Intermediate School 777 Country Club Dr, Elko, NV 89801, USA

Workshop, Ticketed

Ticket Type Ticketed

10:00am PST

Makila Carving

Friday January 31, 2025 10:00am - 3:00pm PST

Elko High School Performing Arts Building - Room 150

Learn the significance of carving makilak (Basque walking sticks), and make your own, in this educational, hands-on workshop. A prestigious symbol and instrument for both trekking and defense, the traditional makila can take years to make—from the initial cut in a living tree, to the time-consuming curing process, to carving designs and attaching silver tippings. Bob Echeverria will pare it down for you, providing harvested sticks pre-prepped for carving. You’ll also be introduced to other ingenious, practical items that provide the canvas for carving. Never get caught unprepared for downtime in the sheep camp again. Bring your favorite carving tool (pocket knife). All ages welcome.

Artists & Special Guests

Bob Echeverria

Bob Echeverria is a long-time resident of Elko, Nevada. After becoming a decorated veteran, Bob worked as an educator for many years, first at the Nevada Youth Training Center, where he taught social studies, and then at the Elko County School District’s Alternative School, where... Read More →

Friday January 31, 2025 10:00am - 3:00pm PST
Elko High School Performing Arts Building - Room 150

Workshop, Ticketed

Ticket Type Ticketed

11:00am PST

Bones

Friday January 31, 2025 11:00am - 12:15pm PST

Elko High School Performing Arts Building - Room 132

Learn the knack of clacking the bones! Described as the American Songster, Dom Flemons draws on his extensive old-time and folk music knowledge to teach the history and skill behind this popular traditional rhythm-maker. No bones needed—you’ll be provided with your own pair to use in the workshop and to take home with you to practice. All ages welcome.

Artists & Special Guests

Dom Flemons

Dom Flemons is a GRAMMY-winning songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, music scholar, slam poet, podcaster, and creator and host of the American Songster Radio Show on WSM in Nashville. Carrying on the songster tradition, Flemons strives to mix a repertoire covering over one hundred years... Read More →

Friday January 31, 2025 11:00am - 12:15pm PST
Elko High School Performing Arts Building - Room 132

Workshop, Ticketed

Ticket Type Ticketed

1:00pm PST

Cattle Calling & Mountain Hollering

Friday January 31, 2025 1:00pm - 2:15pm PST

Elko Convention Center - Auditorium

Cowboys are no strangers to situations that call for a good yodel. Like most cowboy necessities, yodeling has been elevated into an artform stamped with regionally distinctive touches and performed with range, skill, and showmanship. Montana hollerer Wylie Gustafson will wow you with his mastery of the phrase “little old lady who.” Kristyn Harris carries on in the ilk of “The Queen of the Yodellers” Rosalie Allen. And, Gary & Kurin Haleamau share paniolo yodeling like that that took root when cows took hold of Hawai’i. Get ready for a pitch-defying, coyote-crying, lung-frying yodeling extravaganza.

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Artists & Special Guests

Gary & Kurin Haleamau

Gary Kawiliau Haleamau of Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i began his musical career at an early age; first as a solo artist, then traveling with Hawaiian music groups throughout the world sharing his amazing talent. Gary is a recipient of the 2008 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award for “Best Religious... Read More →

Kristyn Harris

Kristyn Harris is a singer, songwriter, and entertainer known for her western swing spin on original and classic songs of the rural lifestyle. Her music is heavily influenced by her own ranch life experiences and her love for Texas and the West. She has received accolades and recognition... Read More →

Wylie & the Wild West

Wylie Gustafson is an American original. He was born into a fourth-generation ranching family on the empty sprawl of northern Montana. A singer, songwriter, rancher, horseman, and world-famous Yahoo! Yodeler, Wylie has led the musical outfit known as Wylie & the Wild West for over... Read More →

Friday January 31, 2025 1:00pm - 2:15pm PST
Elko Convention Center - Auditorium 700 Moren Way, Elko, NV 89801, USA

Music, Ticketed

Ticket Type Ticketed

1:00pm PST

Baile with Lone Piñon

Friday January 31, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm PST

Flag View Intermediate School

Get moving to the music of Lone Piñon, who will teach you a few simple and fun traditional dance steps and figures. Dances like La Camila, la varsoviana, el valse de los paños, la vaquera, and others have been danced in New Mexico weddings and dance halls for centuries. These dances have a deep history in the Spanish-speaking ranching communities of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado and they are a proven recipe for lots of fun. Earn the rancheros’ respect (or try to!) with these waltzes and figure dances from the Upper Rio Grande Valley. Suitable for all ages.

Artists & Special Guests

Lone Piñon

Lone Piñon is a New Mexican string band, or orquesta típica, whose music celebrates the integrity and diversity of their region’s multicultural and rural roots. The group spurs creativity around the oldest sounds of the region's traditional string music, which had all but disappeared... Read More →

Friday January 31, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm PST
Flag View Intermediate School 777 Country Club Dr, Elko, NV 89801, USA

Workshop, Ticketed

Ticket Type Ticketed

1:00pm PST

Harmony Singing

Friday January 31, 2025 1:00pm - 3:00pm PST

Elko High School Performing Arts Building - Room 132

Webster defines harmony as “an interweaving of different accounts into a single narrative.” Join Dave Munsick, patriarch of The Munsick Boys, to explore how singing different parts makes a whole. Unison, two-part, three-part, and even four-part structures will be addressed along with ideas that will help you to find your note in a crowd of voices. Whatever your experience level, age, or register, you always have a part in group singing. Let this seasoned singer give you some tips on knowing when, why, and how to go about the business of making one out of many.

Artists & Special Guests

Dave & Tris Munsick

Father and son Dave and Tris Munsick hail from northern Wyoming, where they have ranched and made music together for most of their lives, often as The Munsick Boys with Dave’s other two sons Sam and Ian. Tris trains horses and works in the ag industry, while Dave has run mountains... Read More →

Friday January 31, 2025 1:00pm - 3:00pm PST
Elko High School Performing Arts Building - Room 132

Workshop, Ticketed

Ticket Type Ticketed

6:00pm PST

Cohorts & Collaborators

Friday January 31, 2025 6:00pm - 7:30pm PST

Elko Convention Center - Auditorium

With more than 40 years of poeting under his belt, cowboy poet icon Waddie Mitchell has penned and performed many a rhyme and verse. Between ranching and hitting the stage, he’s also found time to record a few albums with the friends he's picked up along the way. Enjoy a live performance of Waddie’s album Cohorts & Collaborators featuring Waddie and his partners in songwriting, Juni Fisher, Pipp Gillette & Lloyd Wright, Andy Hedges, Brenn Hill, Trinity Seely, Dave Stamey, and Gail Steiger. From their matchups on this album, to their more recent joint efforts, you’ll be inspired to jot a couple jingles with your pals at this show that celebrates the best of collaborations with the best of collaborators.

Sponsored by John G. Searle Family Trust

Artists & Special Guests

Juni Fisher

Growing up in a central California farming family, Juni Fisher participated in 4-H and FFA. She captained her college horse show team, then worked for a reined cow horse trainer before hanging her own shingle and winning her first Snaffle Bit Futurity. While working for a cutting... Read More →

Pipp Gillette & Lloyd Wright

Distinguished singer and musician Pipp Gillette lives and works on the family ranch near Lovelady, Texas, where his grandfather raised cattle and cotton. His lifelong interest in western history and music was fostered as a kid through the stories told to him by his grandfather and... Read More →

Andy Hedges

Andy Hedges is a songster, reciter, storyteller, guitarist, and collector of cowboy songs and poems. The son of a schoolteacher and a rodeo-cowboy-turned-preacher, Andy grew up in Tokio, Texas, where his family paid rent on an old farmhouse by looking after a few head of cattle. There... Read More →

Brenn Hill

For more than three decades, Brenn Hill has stood under a cowboy hat and behind a microphone on countless stages blending his voice with bending guitar strings in a performance style all his own. He uses lyrical language to peel back the layers of life in the West to reveal a more... Read More →

Waddie Mitchell

Trinity Seely

Trinity Seely's life has taken her to many different places, from the Chilcotin of British Columbia to the high deserts of central Wyoming to the Big Belts outside Cascade, Montana. She now lives in Ojai, California, where she is Director of The Thacher School’s Horse Program. Living... Read More →

Dave Stamey

Dave Stamey has been a cowboy, a mule packer, and a dude wrangler. Now, he is one of the most popular western entertainers working today. Dave has made it his life's work to celebrate the rural American West. In the past two decades, he has recorded 11 albums of original music, traveled... Read More →

Gail Steiger

Gail Steiger, foreman of the 50,000-acre Spider Ranch in Yavapai County, Arizona, has been playing guitar and writing songs for over 30 years. He has released two albums, The Romance of Western Life and A Matter of Believin’. A talented filmmaker, Gail produced and directed the... Read More →

Friday January 31, 2025 6:00pm - 7:30pm PST
Elko Convention Center - Auditorium 700 Moren Way, Elko, NV 89801, USA

Poetry & Music, Ticketed

Ticket Type Ticketed

6:00pm PST

Everything Old Is New Again

Friday January 31, 2025 6:00pm - 7:30pm PST

Western Folklife Center - G Three Bar Theater

Committing to a tradition and making it your own is a delicate endeavor. These fresh voices tread the grounds of heritage oh-so-skillfully, balancing reverence and mastery with originality and spunk. Kristyn Harris takes classic country, folk, and swing at her own speed. Lone Piñon reverently study with elders to recreate and revamp their region’s musical repertoire. Annie Mackenzie writes original rhymes built on the foundation of classic cowboy poetry and life on the range. And, Brigid Reedy recites the poems of her personal heroes and moves forward the art of cowboy music. By lovingly trodding the hallowed ground of their forebears, they’re breaking ground of their own and proving that everything old is new again.

Sponsored by Alaethes Wealth, LLC

Artists & Special Guests

Kristyn Harris

Lone Piñon

Annie Mackenzie

Annie Mackenzie is a fourth-generation rancher and part-time cowboy poet. She was born and raised in Jordan Valley, growing up on her family’s ranch just north of the small town in southeast Oregon. She spends her days helping her family tend cattle, start horses, and manage the... Read More →

Brigid & Johnny Reedy

Friday January 31, 2025 6:00pm - 7:30pm PST
Western Folklife Center - G Three Bar Theater

Poetry & Music, Ticketed

Ticket Type Ticketed

8:00pm PST

Get Ridin', When You Get the Blues

Friday January 31, 2025 8:00pm - 9:30pm PST

Elko Convention Center - Auditorium

Two great American musics ride hard across the open range of rural life. Country and blues draw their power from everyday speech, emotional resonance, lived stories, and hard-driving, hard-laboring beats. Both sing with the contributions of Black artists, as does the cowboy trade itself. Join Buffalo Kin, Dom Flemons, Andy Hedges, and Jessie Veeder as they explore the crossroads of these musical styles, from old-timey favorites to contemporary stylings, delivering a bit of blues, a bit of country, a bit of cowboy philosophy. And, one powerful show.

Sponsored by Maverick Casino & Hotel

Artists & Special Guests

Buffalo Kin

Seldom will you find a duo weaving high and lonesome sounds with such ease as Buffalo Kin. The West comes alive with their blending of traditional cowboy folk tunes and haunting original pieces. At home in rural Oregon, Buffalo Kin is Seth Brewster on guitar, banjo, and vocals, and... Read More →

Dom Flemons

Andy Hedges

Jessie Veeder

Jessie Veeder writes and sings about the Badlands of western North Dakota where she grew up as the fourth generation on her family’s cattle ranch. She released her first original album at 16 and has gone on to tour nationally, releasing five more original albums and two books about... Read More →

Friday January 31, 2025 8:00pm - 9:30pm PST
Elko Convention Center - Auditorium 700 Moren Way, Elko, NV 89801, USA

Music, Ticketed

Ticket Type Ticketed

8:00pm PST

Play It Right

Friday January 31, 2025 8:00pm - 9:30pm PST

Western Folklife Center - G Three Bar Theater

The West is not all cows and blue skies. Those cows and blue skies represent opportunity, and some western-made opportunities are more upstanding (and legal) than others. From legendary mischief makers to gritty escapades, take a walk on the darker side of cowboy life. From saloons to dance halls, gambling dens to more notorious establishments, there is a lot of vice, and virtue, lying in wait. So, take a chance and roll the dice with gritty songstress Adrian Brannan, honky-tonking musician Sterling Drake, scoundrel-loving band Sam Platts & the Plainsmen, and folly-finding poet Dick Warwick. Afterall, you are in Nevada.

Sponsored by NV Energy Foundation

Artists & Special Guests

Adrian Brannan

Adrian Brannan is a chart-topping singer-songwriter who is equally at home in the branding pen, on stage, or on a bucking horse. An author and musician, she is also known for her successful series of publicly written “Dear Cowgirl” letters on social media that spurred an online... Read More →

Sterling Drake

Steeped in the traditions of roots music, songwriter Sterling Drake’s journey has taken him from the Big Cypress of south Florida to the mountains of western Montana and everywhere in between. With a penchant for honest storytelling, Sterling weaves his own perspective into the... Read More →

Sam Platts & the Plainsmen

Dick Warwick

Dick Warwick lives with his wife Sue on the old home place amid the rolling hills of the Palouse country of eastern Washington state. Dick writes about the foibles and follies of his own life, the land, relationships with nature, and issues regarding the West and rural lifestyles... Read More →

Friday January 31, 2025 8:00pm - 9:30pm PST
Western Folklife Center - G Three Bar Theater

Poetry & Music, Ticketed

Ticket Type Ticketed

10:00pm PST

Friday Night Dance

Friday January 31, 2025 10:00pm - 11:59pm PST

Elko Convention Center - Turquoise Room

It’s no big secret that cowboys love to dance. Some show up and show off. Others sidle in and quietly listen. Whatever your style, the Friday night boogie with Hot Club of Cowtown will make you smile. The band revs up the room with their trademark sounds. A bit of bass, a lick of guitar, a little fiddle, and a whole lot of rhythm and groove. Stretch them weary bones, step up to the dancefloor, and swing the night away.

Sponsored by NV Energy Foundation

Artists & Special Guests

Hot Club of Cowtown

Friday January 31, 2025 10:00pm - 11:59pm PST
Elko Convention Center - Turquoise Room

Dance, Ticketed

Ticket Type Ticketed