FEATURING: Doug Figgs, Yvonne Hollenbeck, Jarle Kvale, Jake Riley, R.P. Smith.

Making a living in agriculture isn't for the faint of heart. Nor is it for the humorless. Some days the ups and downs happen with the intensity of a bucking bronc buzzed by a bee. To keep cool while the ranch tests your good nature, it helps to find a little humor in the crisis. So, cinch up your sunny disposition and join lovelorn troubadour Doug Figgs, witty wordsmith Yvonne Hollenbeck, self-effacing sonneteer Jarle Kvale, playful poet Jake Riley, and genuine jokester R.P. Smith for a show that will have both your heart and your sides aching with hysterics.

From the 40th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

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PLAYLIST

"Ten Below Zero" - Doug Figgs
"Truth in Advertising" - Yvonne Hollenbeck
"My Wife Is Gonna to Kill Me" - Jarle Kvale
"A Rope 'n' Tail - Jake Riley
"Lazarus" - R.P. Smith
"Darcy Farrow" - Doug Figgs (words + music by Tom Campbell + Steve Gillette)
"The Old Cowboy" - Yvonne Hollenbeck
"Bragging" - Jarle Kvale
"The Battle of the Breadbasket" - Jake Riley (poem by Bill Potter + Jake Riley)
"School Boys Lament" - R.P. Smith
"Storm on the Mountain" - Doug Figgs
"Those Advertising Caps" - Yvonne Hollenbeck
"The Shopping Trip" - Jarle Kvale
"Heroes + Friends" - Jake Riley
Mutton Busting story/ "To the Participant" - R.P. Smith
"El Paso" abbreviated - Doug Figgs
"Old Nelly" - Yvonne Hollenbeck
"Get Along" - Jarle Kvale
"The Sawhorse" - Jake Riley
"Cadillac Rap" - R.P. Smith

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Doug Figgs
Lemitar, NM
Doug Figgs is an AFA Certified Journeyman Farrier, horseman, and
western music singer-songwriter from New Mexico. For more than three decades, Doug has lived close to his greatest love—horses! He has shod tens of thousands of steeds, started around a hundred colts, raised cow ponies and cattle, and grown lots of grass hay. He has won numerous awards for his music inspired by the cowboy and western life he lives, writing songs from his experiences while drawing from the history, hardships, and sometimes the romance of the West. Doug has performed his music all over the region and continues to turn out his own variety of western music—from hard-driving songs with a hint of southern rock, to beautiful ballads, and everything in between.

Yvonne Hollenbeck
Winner, SD
Yvonne Hollenbeck is a South Dakota cattleman’s wife who writes poetry about her life on a beautiful, remote ranch where she has spent years putting up hay, feeding a crew, doing bookwork, or working cattle. Although her poetry is often humorous about situations that were not humorous when they happened, her writing also takes a serious side when she reflects upon the hardships experienced by her parents and forebears. Yvonne is also a freelance writer who pens a weekly column in multiple rural newspapers, an avid traditional quilter, and a popular entertainer at various rural events throughout ranch country.

Jarle Kvale
Dunseith, ND
Jarle Kvale turns his experiences with horses, rodeo, and North Dakota rural living into humorous verse. He's been writing cowboy poetry for over 25 years, sharing his stories with friends and family members over trail ride campfires, at various community events, and at cowboy poetry gatherings. He is also host and producer of Back at the Ranch, an online weekly half-hour radio show featuring a mix of western music and cowboy poetry. Jarle and his wife, along with an ever-changing number of horses, live north of Dunseith, North Dakota, not far from the Canadian border.

Jake Riley
Riverdale, NE
Jake Riley grew up, for the most part, in the upper Arkansas Valley of the Colorado mountains. He began roping and rodeoing as a kid, which led to helping out at local ranches, which spawned his love for cowboy culture. Jake has always enjoyed rhyming, publishing some of his first cowboy poetry for a high school project. Much of Jake’s work involves firsthand ranch and rodeo experiences told from his perspective on the contemporary fringe. He recites the classics as well and considers himself extremely blessed to take part in carrying the tradition forward. Jake now calls the plains of Nebraska home, living there along with his wife Carley and a teeming horde of young'uns with an affection for western ways.

R.P. Smith
Broken Bow, NE
R.P. Smith is the fourth generation of his family to have the privilege to care for a small part of God's creation in central Nebraska. His poetry and stories are drawn from his own experiences and, on occasion, brought to focus through the lens of past and future generations. Thirty-plus years of sharing his brand of cowboy poetry, humor, and inspiration has occasionally helped with grocery money or a ranch payment, but the monetary gains have been pretty insignificant compared to the real payout—the trails he has been blessed to share with so many great folks along the journey.

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Filmed in front of a live audience at the Elko Convention Center’s Laurena Moren Theater on Feb. 1, 2025.

Made possible by Blach Distributing Co. and 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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