Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Pair of Wyoming Arts Council roster artists on stage in Elko Jan. 23-30

Two Wyoming Arts Council roster artists will be performing at the Cowboy Poetry Gathering Jan. 23-30 at the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada. They are Miss V the Gypsy Cowbelle from Cora and Andy Nelson from Pinedale. Coincidentally, they are both Sublette County residents.

Here's some bio info on them:


Andy Nelson is a second-generation farrier who was raised in Oakley, Idaho, and traveled with his father on farrier jobs throughout the Great Basin until he went off to college. He's released one book and three CDs of his poetry and humor. With his brother Jim, Andy co-hosts the award-winning, weekly syndicated radio show "Clear Out West (C.O.W.) Radio." In 2004 Andy was named the Western Music Association's Male Poet of the Year, and for 2009, Andy was awarded the Skinny Rowland Humor Award by the Academy of Western Artists. Andy now lives in Pinedale, Wyoming, where among other things, he and his wife Jaclyn raise horses and children. Visit http://www.cowpokepoet.com/


Miss "V" the Gypsy Cowbelle has lived on a remote ranch in Wyoming for the past 13 years, honing her homesteader skills such as haying and logging with horses, sewing clothes and tack on treadle machines, building saddles and her signature "plank" banjos with hand tools, hunting and canning elk, grocery shopping once a year, concocting herbal remedies and dandelion wine, running pack strings and helping her neighbors trail cattle through the Rocky Mountains. Miss “V” has self-produced four CDs and is currently listed on the Wyoming Arts Council Artist Roster.

You can bring either of these performers to your community through a WAC Arts Across Wyoming grant. For more info, go to the WAC web site at http://www.wyomingartscouncil.org/ and click on "grants" on the left sidebar.