The Yampa Valley Boys: Cowboy Music - Steamboat Springs, Colorado

THE BOYS have kicked off 2010 in high gear! We have performed at the Colorado Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the Cochise Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering, and the Cowboy Songs gathering in Cody, WY (thanks to Leslie Keltner for keeping this one going!). We surpassed several milestones with 73 shows in 100 days, 26 shows in March alone, and our 1,300th show in February. With the close of the Steamboat Springs ski area in early April, things slow down until summer. We are looking forward to a variety of upcoming bookings, including some more “Cowboys and Indian” shows with our good friend, Leon Littlebird, the Wyoming State Fair, Adams County (Colorado) Fair, Goshen County (WY), the Steamboat Springs Pro Rodeo Series and many more events. Check out the Calendar page to see where we are.

We are beginning to plan for our next CD. We are lining up some great songs! If you have any suggestions, e-mail them to us.

Of course, “Playin’ Cowboy Music” continues to do well and we still get many requests to perform many of the songs on this album.

Click Here to order “Playin’ Cowboy Music”.

We are pleasantly pleased with the continued sales of “The Christmas Trail”. We are quite proud of that CD and its blend of western and traditional Christmas songs.

Click Here to order “The Christmas Trail”, or just drop us an email.

Western Music has now been defined! It is, “the artistic science of creating vocal and instrumental sounds to produce harmony and expression of emotion through beauty of form relating to living in, origination from, or descriptively representing the historical, imagined or present American West, its landscape, lifestyle or its inhabitants”.

The definition was recently adopted by the Western Music Association at its annual festival in Albuquerque, NM. We were finalists for the 2009 Crescendo Award (one of only five groups in the country). We were also finalists in 2007 for that award.

Need a theme song for your business or organization, or a personal tribute song? Check out the theme song for Six Gun For Hire at www.sixgunforhire.com. We met these fellows at one of our shows in Ashland, NE. Great bunch of fellows! We have also done two separate radio spots for FM Light & Sons, a tribute song for an associate of FM Light’s, and a song describing every ski run at the Steamboat ski area. For more information, contact Steve.

Highlights of 2009

We were finalists, again, for the Western Music Association Crescendo Award. We did our first (of many, we hope) “Cowboys and Indian” shows with Leon Joseph Littlebird, at the Historic Tabor Opera House in Leadville, CO. Leon is an accomplished Native American flutist and great all around entertainer. The Tabor was opened in 1879 with the most notable performers in the past including Oscar Wilde, William Jennings Bryan, Harry Houdini and Lily Langtree. It was quite an experience.

We also did shows at the Black Rose Acoustic Society, (Black Forest, CO), our 6th appearance at the Canon Rose Acoustic Society (Canon City, CO); a road trip to Casper, WY to eastern Nebraska for shows at the Nicolaysen Art Museum (Casper, WY), Nebraska Outback Concert Series (Southerland, NE), South Sioux City Library Series, (South Sioux City, NE), and two shows at the Double D Ranch (Ashland, NE); a short tour in southern Arizona with shows in Tucson, Sonoita (the Arizona Cowboy Symposium) and the Arizona Folk Preserve in Sierra Vista.

We continue to do shows at cowboy music and poetry festivals, county fairs, rodeos, and public and private functions.

Reviews of our other CD’s are contained on “our music” page.

Mike Moutoux, New Mexico's Enchanting Cowboy, cuts it up with John and Steve in the wings of the 2010 Colorado Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering in Arvada.

The Boys on stage at Arvada with Les Hamilton of The Prickly Pair performing as a stage prop in the background. He does a mean rocking chair.

Steve McCartney, Locke Hamilton, Bill Barwick, Steve Jones, Les Hamilton, John Fisher

The is an overall picture of the great stage setting at Arvada 2010. While we performed, Steve ”Mac” McCartney, Locke Hamilton, Bill Barwick, and Les Hamilton graced the stage and offered encouragement.

Rick and Rickie in Yampa Valley Boys hats

Some of our closest friends are also our biggest fans! Note the Yampa Valley Boys hats on Rick and Rickie Thompson of Sierra Vista, AZ.

Steve Jones and John Fisher (Yampa Valley Boys) at the Sombrero Ranch Annual Horse Drive

Steve and John playing around the campfire at the 2008 Sombrero Ranch
Annual Horse Drive. Do you get the impression this was a cold one?
Photo by Susan Southerland.

Liz Master, Frank Wolking, Yampa Valley Boys, Westcliffe

Steve & John with Liz Masterson and Frank Wolking of Sons and Brothers at the Wet Mountain Western Days festival on Labor Day Weekend 2008. Frank lost his long and courageous battle with cancer on October 15, 2008. Photo courtesy of Susan Sutherland.

Through the years we have had the pleasure of performing at festivals with:

Yampa Valley Boys at the Arvada Cowboy Poetry Gathering, with Juni Fisher, Andy Nelson, Ann Sochat, D.W. Grothe, Yvonne Hollenbeck

(l-r) John, Juni Fisher, Andy Nelson, Steve, Ann Sochat, DW Grothe, and Yvonne Hollenbeck. (Thanks to Yvonne for the photo)

Yampa Valley Boys at Estes Park Cowboy Poetry Gathering with Baxter Black, Brad & Kath=y Fitch

(L-R) Brad & Kathy Fitch, Baxter Black, John and Steve

Waddie Mitchell with the Yampa Valley Boys, Estes Park

Waddie Mitchell

Meeker Cowboy Gathering, Yampa Valley Boys, Vic Anderson, Evelyn Roper, Peggy Malone, Greg Scott

(l-r) Vic Anderson, Evelyn Roper, Peggy Malone, and Greg Scott. Our good friend Greg Scott passed away on July 20, 2009.

with our Musical "Cousin" Juni Fisher.

Leon Joseph Littlebird with the Yampa Valley Boys at the Historic Tabor Opera House in Leadville CO

Our concert in the Historic Tabor Opera House, Leadville, CO. Here, Leon Joseph Littlebird is humoring the Boys, by wearing his "cowboy" shirt over the traditional buckskins.

John Fisher, and SteveJones flank Prickly Pear and the Cactus Choral

The Yampa Valley Boys backstage with Prickly Pair and the Cactus Chorale at the 2009 Grand Olde West Days, Craig, CO. (L-R John, Norman, Les, Locke, and Steve). Jeep, the wonder dog, had to get in the shot also.

If they have Cowboy Music in Heaven, this is probably what our show would look like! Hallelujah!

We often get asked to play our songs and show off instruments at area schools. Here we’re at the North Routt Charter School in Clark, CO.

Doak Walker Extended Care Center

Steve and John again played at the summer picnic for the Doak Walker Extended Care Center in Steamboat Spring, CO. Here Cammy Ravenscroft gets her 80+ year old Grandmother up for a little dancing.

Historic Tabor Opera House: The Yampa Valley Boys with Leon Joseph Littlebird

We were really excited about the art work for our combined show at the Historic Tabor Opera House, Leadville CO

Be sure to check out the Calendar page, so you can be a part of the Yampa Valley Boys next event.

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E-mail: yampavalleyboys@hotmail.com

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