Karen Ingram

We woke to sunshine and blue skies, was this an omen for our 13th annual Cowboy Poetry and Country Music Fest.  Ted Sillito didn’t make it back from Mexico in time to do his sets but B.J. Smith and Bud Stewart happily stepped in to complete the program.  Bob Westrop, our M.C., had a flat tire on his way into town but made it in a mere fifteen  minutes late and the show went on.
A group of Taber favorites, The Oilers, started the show with their own brand of music, playing some polkas and waltzes to set the tone and get the toes tapping.  Dusty Litchfield, a young man raised in the Purple Springs area, went on next with his own original tunes.  Tales of faded trails, prairie homes, small town fun and old guitars were the themes for some of his songs.  Kathie Friesen, our Vauxhall entertainer was up next with her Patsy Kline sound and some new back up musicians.  Alex, Arne & Friends followed Kathie.  This group grew from 2 to 6 in one year, Alex and Arne have been attending area jam sessions and picked up some new members.  Bud Stewart rounded out our first set, without his lovely wife, Jill, this year as she had gotten sick the night before.  Bud, always a great entertainer, has been with us since the first Cowboy Poetry in Taber and it would just not be the same without him.
Continuing on, without a break, we heard Larry Krause perform and he mentioned his new CD to be out in June.  Don’t sweat the small stuff was the theme that stuck in my head after his performance.  He had also sang about, booze from the still and running from the mounties.  Rod Erickson, up from Idaho, sang about Skinny & Scrawny, two nearly dead kittens that his wife once nursed back to health after he brought them home to her.  The cats apparently got in lots of trouble but after all Cats are just Cats!  He even gave us a lesson in yodelling if we could just watch his mouth.  Bruce Rawling, one of the Rawling Brothers, was up next and sang his heart out for us.  My favorite song from him was one about Photographs that he had written in memory of his father.  B.J. Smith has to be one of my favorite Cowboy Poets with his tales of pink lace and shirt tails, GPS and horses, backing up the R.V.’s, goose bumps and long johns when it was 10 below and snowing, balky horses and spraying where one pleases.
Listening to Jim Peace and the Dutch Creek Drifters sing their songs of country life including such things as worn out trucks and drifters.  Graham Allan and Mike Dygdart rounded out the Dutch Creek Drifters.  And then there was Bob Westrop, our M.C. who is much more than that entertaining us while the musicians were being connected to the sound system.  My favorite comment from him was about “Apple pie without cheese is like kisses without a squeeze.”  Door prizes, Raffles and Good Food made the day one to remember.
I ask you, where can you get such a lineup of entertainment and spend the afternoon and early evening for a mere ten dollars, while helping to keep the Taber Museum open year round?