Welcome to the 20th annual Christmas at the BAR-D. We’ll be posting poems, classic, old, and new, starting December 16, 2019. Until then, have a look at Art Spur and please consider pitching in to ensure BAR-D programs can go forward in 2020.
“Supporting the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry supports the entire community of cowboy/western artists. Before the holidays run up yer back, maul you around, and leave you wondering what happened, step up here and help out this tremendous resource if you can. You won’t regret it, and we can all thank each other! Please donate.” Jerry Brooks
Find a collection of Christmas poems, first started in 2000, here.
The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Eight (2013) is a double CD compilation of vintage and contemporary recordings of some of the best Christmas cowboy poetry.
In this eighth annual edition of The BAR-D Roundup, a diverse chorus of voices presents contemporary and classic Christmas works. Opening the collection is a beautiful rendition of the shaped-note “Christmas Waltz” by National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow Buck Ramsey (1938-1998), accompanied by his sisters and brother. Great cowboy troubadour Don Edwards recites Badger Clark’s “The Christmas Trail”; top cowboy poet Waddie Mitchell offers his original “Good Gift”; Red Steagall, past Texas Poet Laureate and the state’s official cowboy poet delivers S. Omar Barker’s “Three Wise Men”; and the voice of Jimmy Dean (1928-2010) is heard in a vintage recording of S. Omar Barker’s “A Cowboy’s Christmas Prayer.”
Forty-three additional poets and reciters present a spirited range of poems, many of them from the CowboyPoetry.com archive of Christmas at the BAR-D, started in 2000. Some of the poems are from Christmas Art Spur projects at CowboyPoetry.com, where poets are invited to be inspired by art and photography.
Available for $25 postpaid in the US ($35 international)
Click above for credit card payments, or mail to CowboyPoetry.com,
PO Box 1107, Lexington, VA 24450
Every year’s CD includes a radio public service announcement about the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry. For this CD, it is delivered by ranch-raised rodeo broadcaster Totsie Slover.
The BAR-D Roundup cover images are usually vintage photos of poets or their forebears. This special Christmas collection veers slightly from that tradition with a photo of “Little Buddy” a steer from the Granley Ranch near Bainville, Montana (thanks to poet, picker, and ranch hand DW Groethe). Inside is a photograph of the annual live Nativity at Dick Noble and Jim and Tina Noble Nelson’s Flying U Ranch, in Cora, Wyoming.
Find more at CowboyPoetry.com.
ART SPUR
Lost to us in 2019: Tim Johnson, Leo Naumann, Diane Coggin Merrill, Mike Logan, Lucky Whipple, Rusty Feathers, Bruce Matley, Janice Mitich, Leon Rausch, Marion Manwill, Del Gustafson, and Carol Reffold.
“Supporting the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry/CowboyPoetry.com supports the entire community of cowboy/western artists. Before the holidays run up yer back, maul you around, and leave you wondering what happened, step up here and help out this tremendous resource if you can. You won’t regret it, and we can all thank each other! Please donate.” Jerry Brooks
At CowboyPoetry.com (also known as the BAR-D) and the non-profit Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, our mission is to preserve, celebrate, and promote the arts and life of the real working West. Thanks to a great community of supporters, we have fulfilled that mission for twenty years. Right now your help is needed to continue the work of the BAR-D.
Now is a great time to renew your support or become a donor for the first time. Donations of any amount are valued. Donors at the $50 and higher level will receive the 2020 poster and CD.
Whether you are a renewing supporter (thank you) or a new supporter, your donation will make a crucial difference in the success our programs. Be a part of it all.There are gifts for you, too: U.S. donors of $50 also receive our annual CD and Western art poster. Read about all of the donor gifts here and find information for Canadian and international donors.
Thanks to all of our great sponsors and individual 209 donors to date. Find them all here.
If you have not supported the BAR-D recently, now is the time that your support will make the most critical difference. No amount is too small.
You can make a donation by check or money order, by mail (use the form here for mail to PO Box 1107, Lexington, VA 24450) or by a secure, on-line credit card payment through PayPal (a PayPal account is not required):
CowboyPoetry.com is a project of The Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, a tax-exempt non-profit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Act. The Center seeks grants and donations from individuals, corporate entities, foundations, and private sources.
Contributions to the Center are deductible for federal income tax purposes (except for the value of any CD received, $15). As in all professional journalistic endeavors, no editorial preference is given to financial sponsors or supporters.
Join others in this community in supporting the BAR-D programs. Find the names of those generous current donors here.