FEATURING: Mike Beck, Margo Cilker, Forrest VanTuyl.

These trail-worn troubadours find their stories in years on the road, and their songs in years of working together. Balancing wanderlust and rootedness, their sonic paths converge in a folky state of mind. With the slow dash and virtuosic danger of Mike Beck's laidback Americana, and the sensory life of Margo Cilker and Forrest VanTuyl's songwriting, their musical trails all lead back to the belonging found in free life and fresh air. As they sigh for the green beneath and the blue above, these roamers always return to the musical places they love.

From the 39th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

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PLAYLIST

Margo Cilker
"That River"
"Lowland Trail"
"Here in Baker"
"Sound and Fury" (words + music by Margo Cilker + Forrest VanTuyl)
"Road to Las Cruces" (words + music by Ian Tyson)
"EZ 2 LOVE U" (words + music by Forrest VanTuyl + Margo Cilker)
"Delta Dawn" (words + music by Alex Harvey + Larry Collins)

Forrest VanTuyl
"Forever Enshrined in the Eye of a Mare"
"Rawhide"
"Rockjack"
"Yonder Mountain"
"The County"
"Winnemucca"
"The Old Hands" (poem by Vess Quinlin)
"Old Trails" (words + music by Forrest VanTuyl + Margo Cilker

Mike Beck
"Dire Wolf" (words + music by Robert Hunter)
"Nevada is King"
"Walk on By" (words + music by Burt F. Bacharach + Hal David)
"Son of the San Joaquin"
"Don't Hurt My Heart"

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Mike Beck
Manhattan, MT
Mike Beck is a professional musician and working cowboy whose songs reflect his experiences in California, Oregon, Montana, and Nevada. Born and raised in Monterey County, California, he studied with legendary horseman Bill Dorrance and now travels the United States and Europe conducting horsemanship clinics and making music. Ramblin' Jack Elliott says, "Mike Beck plays the guitar like a Byrd. His strings do things that mine could never do. They obey the slightest finger-touch commands like a fine reining horse." A top-notch guitar player, Mike has seven albums under his belt. His mellow sound combines real cowboy experience with a unique blend of western, rock, and Americana styles. Mike is joined by bass player and fellow Montanan Kenny Williams.

Margo Cilker
Goldendale, WA
Singer-songwriter Margo Cilker has spent the last few years on the road—from South Carolina to Montana, to the Basque Country and back to the American West. She says she pines for “Basque wine, music, and cowboys.” Forging a path that is both deeply rooted and ever-changing, Margo recently alighted near the Columbia River in southern Washington with her husband Forrest and their dog and some horses. Her music reflects a restlessness and continued yearning for the road. Margo’s second album, Valley of Heart’s Delight, refers to a place she can’t return, a place that birthed five generations of Cilkers—California’s Santa Clara Valley, as it was known before the orchards were paved over and became more famous for Silicon than apricots.

Forrest VanTuyl
Goldendale, WA
Forrest VanTuyl is a songwriter and poet from Goldendale, Washington. Much of his work is based on years spent packing mules and cowboying in the steep, remote, alpine and canyon country of Wallowa County, Oregon. Early on, he paid for his songwriting and wandering addiction with all sorts of jobs, from tugboat deckhand to sheep dairyman, lawn mower to potato harvester operator. But when he got on a horse in the Wallowa Mountains, he never left. No Depression said of his music, “These are the real cowboy blues—long stretches of road, loneliness, inscrutable feelings and people.” Forrest has toured the United States and Europe extensively, performed at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, written music for the US Forest Service, and been published in The New York Times.

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Filmed in front of a live audience with help from the E. L. Wiegand Foundation at the Western Folklife Center’s G Three Bar Theater in Elko, NV, on Feb. 3, 2024.

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

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