Cultural Arts Center--Mozley House

12 annual Cowboy Gathering

PRESS RELEASE:

February 18, 2008

 
For immediate release:
Through March 1, 2008                                           For more information:
Laura Lieberman 770/949-2787
                                                                                             


DOUGLASVILLE’S 12th Annual GEORGIA Cowboy POETS Gathering:

“Ole Friends and Good Saddles”

Douglasville, Georgia – The Cultural Arts Council of Douglasville/Douglas County is pleased to sponsor its 12th annual Georgia Cowboy Poets Gathering at the Mashburn Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of the Douglas County High School on Saturday, March 1st. The evening performance begins at 7 p.m. Showcasing local performers and members of the Douglas County Cowboy Poets, cowboy musician, singer and guitarist John Howle, and the Double H Wranglers, this special event is presented by the Douglas County Cowboy Poets in partnership with the Cultural Arts Council. Tickets are $12 per person ($10 for CAC members, seniors and students.

This year there will be a special display of saddles in the lobby of Douglas County High School beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 1st. About 20 saddles have been loaned for this one-day exhibit including a roping saddle custom made in California for Mac Abercrombie, the Triple T saddle designed by his son Claude Abercrombie, several saddles made by legendary saddler Jim Hurst, antique saddles from the private collection of Alabama-based Bob Vann, and a “McClellan” made for the U.S. Calvary in the 1850s as well as ordinary working cowboys’ saddles. On Saturday afternoon, local cowboy and cowgirl poets are also invited to an open mike session from 1 until 4 p.m. In conjunction with the ticketed evening performance, Georgia cowboy poets will also perform in the Douglas County schools, celebrating frontier life with songs, stories and poetry.

For the Saturday night performance, Douglas County Cowboy Poets founders Charlie Holloway and Joel Hayes have organized a fun-filled evening featuring many of those who contributed to the development of this unique Douglas County event during the past decade. Our showcased performers in 2008 include: Master of Ceremonies Charlie Holloway who authored Old Saddles & Good Advice and who is as well and widely known and respected for his traditional cow camp cooking as for his poems; Joel Hayes who is known as the father of Georgia Cowboy Poetry and who has performed at every Douglas County Cowboy Poets Gathering since the first one held at Hudson’s by the Lake; Frank Woods whose family ran cattle in the mountains before there were fence laws and who has been writing cowboy poetry for the past thirty years while managing livestock operations and research farms throughout Georgia and the Southeast;  Jerry Warren, Georgia’s official Cowboy Poet (as recognized by the Georgia General Assembly in 2002) and the first “Easterner” ever to perform at the Elko Cowboy Gathering, and “The Cajun Cowboy Poet,” Ray Barker  whose unique mix of traditional cowboy material and stories of his native Louisiana are always guaranteed to delight audiences.  More Georgia Cowboy Poets including Harry Yeomans, Bill Mattison, and Hank Mattson are also expected to perform at the 12th Annual Douglas County Cowboy Poets Gathering, and this year as every year no doubt the Gathering will include some surprise guests as well.

Cowboys and cowgirls are ever-popular American icons, and folklorists trace the practice of composing verse about life and work on the range back to the trail drive era after the Civil War. Most of this nation's first cowboys, the cowboys of the trail drives during the late 1800s, had Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Gaelic roots. Their distinctive lingo and their songs and poems were largely based on traditions of British balladry. Ever since those early days, their poetry has circulated orally and in print, sometimes anonymously but often with a known author. Many of these verses are still recited and sung today. The American cowboy culture is a fascinating amalgam of Irish storytelling, Scottish seafaring and cattle tending, Moorish and Spanish horsemanship, European cavalry traditions, African improvisation and Native American experience.

The modern Cowboy Poets movement began in 1979 when the Library of Congress and National Endowment for the Arts convened a meeting of American folklorists where Arizona folklorist Jim Griffith began to develop the idea of a national gathering of cowboy poets. The first Cowboy Poets Gathering was held in 1985 in Elko, Nevada; more than 8,000 people now attend that event which produces a $5.5 million impact on the local economy each year. There are now more than 150 Cowboy Poets Gatherings around the U.S.  The Douglasville celebration of cowboy life and culture is the tenth such annual gathering in Douglasville, Georgia sponsored by the Cultural Arts Council in partnership with the Douglas County Cowboy Poets, which is a satellite organization of the Arts Council.

CAC Executive Director commented, “The Arts Council is very proud of the Douglas County Cowboy Poets group, and we commend them for more than a decade of presenting this unique celebration of American values and Western culture here in West Georgia. We know the Cowboy Poets founders Joel Hayes and Charlie Holloway will put on a great show, and we hope everyone will join us in celebrating Cowboy Poetry in our community!”
The Cultural Arts Council of Douglasville/Douglas County is located at 8652 Campbellton Street in downtown Douglasville, Georgia. The Mashburn Center for the Performing Arts Center at Douglas County High School is just across the street. Douglasville is 18 miles west of Atlanta; from I-20 West, take exit 36 (Chapel Hill), turn right off the exit onto Campbellton Street; the high school is about ½ mile on your left. Contact the Cultural Arts Council for further information, directions and to purchase tickets 770-949-2787.

(PLEASE NOTE: Photographs of last year’s Cowboy Poets Gathering performers are available upon request. Contact Laura C. Lieberman at 770-949-2787 or culturedirector@earthlink.net..)