Tips for Applying to Perform at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering:

All artists

• Double-check your recording using different players. Some CDs formatted on computers do not play in a CD player, for example.
  
  
• Label everything with your name.
  
  
• You may submit more than the requested materials, but please separate the selections for submission from the additional materials.
  
  
• Only the review committee will see your selection, but the Western Folklife Center encourages you to submit books, CDs and other publications to the Western Folklife Center Archives.
  
  
• If you do not have access to recording equipment, please call the Western Folklife Center for assistance.
  
  
• If you have a recent image you would like us to use if you are chosen to perform, please provide it with your application.

• The selection committee has limited time to review all the materials. Choose three poems that best represent your style.
  
  
• The selection committee will be familiar with most of the classic poems. If you recite the works of other poets, choose the poems that best represent your recitation style.

• The best recordings are simple. Sound effects and overly-produced sound is distracting to the selection committee.
  
  
• If you submit a professionally produced CD of your music, include a separate sheet listing the track numbers and titles of your three selections. Remove the plastic wrapper from the CD.
  
  
• If you are submitting as a solo musician and choose to submit recordings that use other musicians, list the musicians and the instruments they play on a separate sheet. We recommend submitting songs that highlight you as a solo musician.
  
  
• If you are a musical group, please list the members of the band and the instruments that each plays for each song selection.