Over the weekend, the Iron Door Playhouse hosted over twenty practitioners of the vaunted Western arts of cowboy music and poetry.  Participants from around the region, as well as some local participants, took to the stage to recite poems and stories, and play music of a number of different styles with a western flair.

The event was sponsored by the Iron Door Playhouse, the American Legion, the International Western Music Association, and dozens of local and regional businesses and individuals.

The event spanned Friday and Saturday, with an open mic sign up on Friday and Saturday afternoons, and the set program on both evenings.  The MC for Friday was JB Barber, who kept the crowd entertained while and the show moving along for a night that included Vanessa Carpenter, Chris Mortensen, Bob Urry, Scott Holmen, John Reekie, Gordon Champneys, Scott Olsen, Todd Andrus, Thatch Elmer, and the Fall River Boys.  All of those who wanted joined in the grand finale performance.

For Saturday’s performance, the MC was Chris Mortensen, and the lineup included Most of Strings & C, Ty Liddle, JB Barber, Vanessa Carpenter, Bob Jackson, Ellie Corrigan, Bill Chiles, Bobbie Hunter, the Romreills, Ken Wellard, Many Strings, and another grand finale.

The Cowboy Poetry Festival is a fantastic chance for those interested in the wit and whimsy of the art form, as well as the sometimes serious reflections that come up as the writers and musicians ruminate on topics such as the disappearing or changing Western landscape, memories of those who have gone on, older codes of values and virtues, and the role of the cowboy in contemporary society.  

A number of well-known cowboy poets from the past were honored in readings of their work, including local legend Cullen Sweeten.  

The event served as a fundraiser for the Iron Door Playhouse, which is seeking funds to repair the building’s roof.

The Iron Door Playhouse’s next major event is a Broadway Musical Review timed for Mother’s Day on May 12 and 13.  The Fourth of July melodrama for this year will be “The Veggie Villain or He Had a Steak in it,” which will run June 30, July 1, 3 and 4.  The big show of the year will be a production of “The Music Man,” scheduled for November 10, 11, 13, 17, 18, and 20.