photo of Bruce Kiskaddon licensed from the Aultman Collection, History Colorado
Praise for previous CDs from CowboyPoetry.com:
“The MASTERS of cowboy poetry series from CowboyPoetry.com showcases both the masters of writing Western poetic words and masters of delivering those words. It just doesn’t get any better than that.” Rick Huff, Rick Huff’s Best of the West Reviews
“This album [MASTERS (2017)] represents four of the finest poets to ever come out of cowboy culture. We are not likely to see their kind again and the world should be grateful to Cowboypoetry.com for preserving their voices.” Andy Hedges, songster and host of COWBOY CROSSROADS
“…The annual anthology takes listeners on an oral excursion to places throughout the West, introducing them to colorful cowboy characters, explaining their connection to the land, and telling their tales of tough times and the rewards they receive from living the Western lifestyle…” Jennifer Denison, Senior Editor, Western Horseman
“The Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry’s annual anthologies are creating a valuable, high quality and thoroughly enjoyable resource for everyone…” Steve Green, Archivist, Western Folklife Center
“…without peer…intelligently produced… I equate them to one of those Ken Burns specials, like his Civil War, Jazz, or Baseball….the best of the best.” Rick Huff, Rick Huff’s Best of the West Reviews
“For those of us who love cowboy poetry, this is perhaps the best anthology we’ve yet heard.” Cowboy Magazine
The Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry produces compilation CDs of classic and contemporary poetry recitations. The CDs are offered to libraries in the Center’s Cowboy Poetry Week Rural Library project, given as premiums to the Center’s supporters, and available to the public.
Our thirteenth CD (following ten volumes of The BAR-D Roundup and two MASTERS volumes) is MASTERS: VOLUME THREE, the poetry of Bruce Kiskaddon (April 2019).
MASTERS: VOLUME THREE has over 60 tracks in a multi-disc CD of the poetry of Bruce Kiskaddon (1878-1950). Voices from the past and from today’s top reciters and poets celebrate cowboy poetry’s popular classic poet. Bill Siems, whose monumental work, Open Range, collects almost all of Kiskaddon’s nearly 500 poems, introduces the CD.
The CD includes the voices of J.B. Allen (1938-2005), Trey Allen (1971-2016), Amy Hale Auker, Valerie Beard, Floyd Beard, Baxter Black, Almeda Bradshaw, Jerry A. Brooks, Ol’ Jim Cathey, Ken Cook, Robert Dennis, DW Groethe, Sunny Hancock (1931-2003), Andy Hedges, Jessica Hedges, Chris Isaacs, Linda Kirkpatrick, Susie Knight, Ross Knox, Jarle Kvale, David McCall, Deanna Dickinson McCall, Rusty McCall (1986-2013), Gary McMahan, Rod Miller, Waddie Mitchell, Dick Morton, Kathy Moss, Terry Nash, Duane Nelson, Andy Nelson, Kay Nowell, Dale Page, Brigid Reedy, John Reedy, Johnny Reedy, Rex Rideout, Randy Rieman, Dennis Russell, Bill Siems, Jesse Smith, Jay Snider, Gail Steiger, Tom Swearingen, Smoke Wade, and Keith Ward, with a PSA by Butch Hause.
Bruce Kiskaddon (1878-1950) worked for ten years as a cowboy, starting in 1898 in southeastern Colorado’s Picketwire area. He published short stories and nearly 500 poems. His poems are among the most admired and the most recited in the “classic” cowboy poetry canon.
Find more about Kiskaddon at CowboyPoetry.com.
The MASTERS CD is dedicated to all those who proudly carry on the ranching tradition.
The Center’s Cowboy Poetry Week celebration—recognized by unanimous U.S. Senate resolution—takes place each April during National Poetry Month. Each year, a compilation CD and the celebration’s poster (by Shawn Cameron in 2019) have been offered to libraries in the Center’s Rural Library Program. The outreach program is part of the Center’s commitment to serve rural communities and to preserve and promote our Western heritage.
The annual CD is a premium for our supporters and also available for purchase. Find information about past years’ CDs here.
We need your support to continue and expand these programs. Join us and be a part of it all.
Stay tuned for:
Track list and sources
Acknowledgements
Order information
Release date: April, 2019