Taber Cowboy Poetry brings western living home

Posted on March 27, 2025 by admin

By Cal Braid
Southern Alberta Newspapers
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Taber’s Cowboy Poetry & Western Music Roundup is back on March 29, and it’s billed as a “family-friendly event featuring seasoned professional musicians and poets, up-and-coming artists, and student performers.” The show will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Parkside Manor with entry by donation. Snacks and refreshments will be on sale throughout the day courtesy of Kabakula Catering.

 The featured artists are headliner Larry Krause, the first recipient of the Saskatchewan Country Music Association’s Roots Artist of the Year award, and Bud Edgar, a crowd favourite. Roundup spokesperson David Woodruff expects about eight or nine youth performers who will show off their budding gifts for music or lyrics.

 Woodruff has travelled the cowboy poetry circuit over the years, from High River to Nanton to Pincher Creek and as far east as Maple Creek, Sask. He has waited in an infinite lineup at the border (“backed up all the way to Banff”) to get to a roundup in Lewistown, Mont. He said the granddaddy of all roundups is held in Elko, Nev.each January, but so far he has been dissuaded from the trek after his wife asked him, “How many mountain passes do we have to cross to get there?” A good point about January travel. That one might be a fly-in destination.

  Either way, Woodruff is an enthusiast who says, “Cowboy poetry gatherings are the neatest concert the world has ever seen, as far as I’m concerned. It’s family friendly, you can walk in and you can just feel the love.”

The event has been held in the community centre in past years, but Woodruff said the silver lining of moving to Parkside Manor this year is that “we don’t have to fight with the acoustics.” Taber Cowboy Poetry has a long history in town, even if there have been some on-again, off-again years.

 Woodruff is especially pleased that youth are participating and wants to continue to draw young people in by connecting with schools, Scout troops, and 4 H Clubs.

 As for the theme of each event, “We keep it western. We don’t want any country. Country is where the guys lose their gun and their wife and their dog and their truck, and that’s eastern. I feel sorry for those boys.”

 To him it’s all about the western lifestyle. “You’re working with horses and cattle and other cowboys, and there’s odd cowgirls, you get a little bit of love and family in there.”

 “I tell people, western is ‘Man, this blizzard is something else, isn’t it? Boy, these cattle are sure moving slow! Man, I’m sure glad I put the hay out this morning. Only got a half a mile to go, and then we’re home. Oh, there’s the light in the cabin window. It’s going to be hot biscuits in the pan. Life is good.’”