Featuring: Andy Hedges, Corb Lund, Jake Riley

From the northern reaches of Alberta to the plains of Nebraska and all the way down to the Texas Panhandle, these three troubadours are all about going the distance. Corb Lund shares songs from growing up ranching in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. Jake Riley chronicles the contemporary cowboy drawing upon experiences roping and rodeoing across the West. And, Lubbock-based but Tokio-grown Texan Andy Hedges unpacks a repertoire stretching from classic cowboy recitations all the way to Dust Bowl ballads and blues. This show is a bit of something for everyone. A bit of something all o’er the West.

From the 38th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

PLAYLIST

"From Town" - Andy Hedges (poem by Charles Badger Clark)
"The Walkaway Plan" - Jake Riley
"Fifty Years Ago" - Corb Lund (words + music by Ian Tyson)
"Little Joe the Wrangler" - Andy Hedges + Corb Lund (poem by N. Howard “Jack” Thorp)
"For Don" - Jake Riley
"Cows Around" - Corb Lund
"Long Johns On" - Andy Hedges (words by Waddie Mitchell + music by Andy + Alissa Hedges)
"Bear Ropin' Buckaroo" - Jake Riley (poem by S. Omar Barker)
"I Wanna be in the Cavalry" - Jake Riley (words by Corb Lund + music adapted from “The Idiot” by Stan Rogers)
“The Broncho” - Andy Hedges (poem by Captain Jack Crawford)
"Pitch, You Wild Outlaw, Pitch" - Andy Hedges + Corb Lund (words by E.A. Brininstool + music is traditional )
"Any Given Spring" - Jake Riley
"Especially a Paint" - Corb Lund
"Some Cowboy Brag Talk" - Andy Hedges (poem by Harry Jackson)
"Ragged But Right" - Andy Hedges (traditional)
"Bad Job" - Jake Riley (poem by Buck Ramsey)
"The Truck Got Stuck" - Corb Lund
"The Old Cowman" - Andy Hedges (words by Charles Badger Clark + music by Don Edwards)
"Many Thanks" - Jake Riley
"S Lazy H" - Corb Lund

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Andy Hedges
Lubbock, TX
Andy Hedges is a songster, reciter, storyteller, guitarist, and collector of cowboy songs and poems. The son of an Italian schoolteacher and a rodeo-cowboy-turned-preacher, Andy grew up in the small community of Tokio,Texas, where his family paid rent on an old farmhouse by looking after a few head of cattle. It was there that Andy fell in love with traditional music by listening to his father’s cassettes of cowboy songs. Andy’s vast and varied repertoire includes classic cowboy poetry recitations, obscure cowboy songs, Dust Bowl ballads, and blues. His podcast, Cowboy Crossroads, features in-depth interviews with fellow musicians and poets. Andy has performed many times with folk legend Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and the duo’s performance at the 60th Newport Folk Festival was named one of the “10 Best Things We Saw” by Rolling Stone.

Corb Lund
Southern AB, Canada
Hailing from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Corb Lund grew up in rural Alberta chasing cattle, riding horseback, and rodeoing. Embracing both his long family lineage of ranchers and rodeo people and his indie rock past, Corb’s music filters a range of cowboy themes through his unique lens–from rough-and-tumble tales of lawless frontier saloons to the somber realities of running a modern family ranch. Most recently, he released Songs My Friends Wrote, featuring his own spin on songs written by close friends and world-class songwriters such as Hayes Carll, Todd Snider, and Canadian country music legend Ian Tyson. Corb spent much of 2022 doing what he loves best–being on the road and writing another album of originals to be released this year.

Jake Riley
Riverdale, NE
Jake Riley grew up, for the most part, in the upper Arkansas Valley of the Colorado mountains and graduated from high school in Buena Vista. He began roping and rodeoing as a kid. Jake has always loved rhyming, publishing some of his first cowboy poetry for a high school project. Ever since, poetry has been one of his passions, but only recently has he resumed finishing poems and sharing them with others. Much of Jake’s work involves firsthand ranch and rodeo experiences, often chronicling the contemporary "cowboy" who may not cowboy for a living but has ties to cowboy culture. His original poetry album, Western Errors, runs the gamut from cowboy wrecks to humor to philosophical observations and reflections on life.

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Filmed in front of a live audience at the Western Folklife Center’s G Three Bar Theater on Feb. 3, 2023.

Made possible by the multitude of staff, artists, volunteers, and community members working behind the scenes to make this show happen.

Brought to you by the Western Folklife Center, using story and cultural expression to connect the American West to the world.
www.westernfolklife.org

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