Annual tribute to cowboy life fades into sunset in Elko

About 9,000 people from across the country gathered for the weeklong festival in this remote town 290 miles east of Reno, cramming into daytime sessions featuring cowboy songs, poems, fiddle-playing and humor.

At night, people headed for bars and hotels around town for dances and impromptu jam sessions that ran far into the night.

As usual, one of the hottest spots in town was Stockmen's Hotel, where the jam sessions featured professional and amateur musicians alike.

When one fiddler or guitar-picker started a tune, everyone joined in. They sang such favorites as "Home on the Range," "Red River Valley" and "Way Down Yonder in the Indian Nation."

"This takes me back. I can't remember when I've been in a sing-along," said Emmy McMasters, 78, of Portland, Ore.

"It's just plain fun," added Delores Severe, a mother of seven from Somerville, Ore., who plays guitar, sings and yodels.

The theme of this year's gathering was the Scottish and English roots of the cowboy culture. Ranching has a long tradition in Great Britain.

Tam and Anne Reid, who live on a 66-acre farm in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, came here to perform songs and explore the Celtic roots of cowboy poetry and music.

Celtic ballads were remade in America to reflect new circumstances and geography. But the themes remained the same: love and loneliness, cows and conflict.

"So many things have changed," Anne Reid said. "People have lost the art of conversation and story-telling and singing.

"We've got to keep the old songs alive. If we lose them we'll never get them back."

Country singer Michael Martin Murphey, who performed at concerts during the event, said numerous cowboy songs have Celtic roots.

"There are examples everywhere you look," Murphey said. "The first hit cowboy song, an Edison recording in the 1920s, came from an Irish ballad. 'Red River Valley' came from a Scottish song ... You can just go on and on."

Real cowpokes and cowboys of the drugstore variety mixed during the 15th annual gathering.

"Yeah, I guess I'm a hobby-horse kind of cowboy," said Tim Caughlin, 46, of Wheaton, Ill. "I've always liked the songs and poems, though. They touch the part of me that grew up on 'Gunsmoke' and 'Bonanza' on TV."

"I've never lived on a ranch, but I know there's more hard work than romance to it," added Candy Carlile, 52, of Salt Lake City. "I moved west from Yew York about six years ago. The poetry here embodies what I like about the West."

Ed Green, a native New Yorker who moved to Montana, said the West is the best.

"There's a big difference between the broncs and the Bronx," he said. "This (gathering) is the romantic view, but it also brings out the real view of ranch life."

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