Paul Zarzyski -- Musings from Planet UniPoet:

No poet worth his Margarita salt will ever cop to that ol’ saw one picture is worth a thousand words, even if he does experience now and again its scintilla of truth. You’ve caught me at a rare/weak moment, however—on the Margarita wagon, so to speak—because I just can not poetically convey the breadth of creative joy that Gordon Stevens and Lee Ray imbue through their cover photo and graphics to Renata Bratt’s (www.renatabratt.com) 2006 CD GREAT BIG TATERS.

Give this a good long gander, folks. How can you not take an instantaneous shine to this musician’s spirit? And now that I have your humorous attention, dig this: Renata Bratt and Paul Zarzyski a year or so ago didn’t even know we shared this planet together. Moreover, I’d written and published in my 2004 collection, WOLF TRACKS ON THE WELCOME MAT, the poem Potatoes, likely in the same time frame as Renata was contemplating the above record. Furthermore, what were the odds of my crossing trails—at the Elko National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, no less—with Gordon Stevens (proprietor, producer, and player extraordinaire) of Open Path Music (www.openpathmusic.com) studio? What were the odds that we’d record together not one but a brace of spoken word CDs—ROCK ‘n’ ROWEL and COLLISIONS OF RECKLESS LOVE? Or the odds of one of the co-producers being Renata Bratt’s husband, Lee Ray? And of our deciding to cut Potatoes long before I even laid eyes or ears on GREAT BIG TATERS—of us actually deliberating for weeks over music possibilities for this zany poem until, finally, the only non-musician in the pro-tuberant brainstorming bulbous bunch, shouts CELLO! Whynotta Renata?! Talk about your match made in Idaho. Not to even mention the Wisconsin connection—Wisconsin where the poem itself originates, where the state food is the bratwurst, the brat, as in Renata Bratt! I mean, we ain’t talkin’ mere happenstance here. We’re talkin’ cosmic big medicine, huge juju from the musical universe! In other words, not just any slip-through-the-conveyor-belt-crack number 2 spuds, ladies and gentlemen, but rather GREAT BIG TATERS, Triple A-number-1 Bakers! ROCK ‘n’ ROWEL T-bone-complemented, carbohydrate-laden Potatoes!

CD artwork by Walter Piehl (www.walterpiehl.com)

Postscript Testimonials:

“Nobody does cowboy poetry quite like Paul Zarzyski. With his latest release, ROCK ‘n’ ROWEL, the Polish-Hobo-Rodeo-Poet again brings a contemporary edginess to the traditional genre. Initially, you must listen to keep up as he recites his verse. Later, you’ll want to listen again and again to simply appreciate his mastery of the language and its rhythm.”

Fran Devereux Smith—Western Horseman

“Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’ve watched way too many silver-screen horse operas—from Shane to J.W. Coop to McCabe & Mrs. Miller, from Lonely Are The Brave to Lonesome Dove to Dances With Wolves—but Renata Bratt’s GREAT BIG TATERS lopes me back to my favorite Great Big True-Gritters. Because her verve roams the whole soulful open range of creativity. Because her bow arcs star-to-star, vista-after-big-two-hearted-vista, across musical frontiers. In the keenly enunciated words of The Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling, imagine if you will Annie Oakley meets Pablo Casals.

The Western Folklife Center is Podcasting "Potatoes" from ROCK 'n' ROWEL. To listen, click here. To purchase ROCK 'n' ROWEL and COLLISIONS OF RECKLESS LOVE, visit the Western Folklife Center Gift Shop.

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WESTERN HORSEMAN Managing Editor, Fran Smith—bless her big cowgal heart—honored the new CD, ROCK ‘n’ ROWEL, with an enthusiastic review in the June issue. And not just any issue, but one that features longtime Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering compadre, Don Edwards, on the cover—Don’s handsome, old-timey stature, propped by gitfiddle and tooled saddle, all sunset (sunrise!?)-lit in living Kodachrome, is worth the newsstand sticker price of the magazine even if you never crack the booger to peruse Fran’s review. However, if you do, please note her wild-west fearlessness in cutting out of the 15-head stampede on the record, 6 renegades/ rounders/ anomalies/ fence-busters. I’m impressed, Fran!—tickled plum pink (speaking of The Rounders, of Fonda’s refrain to Ford). You bet, it would’ve been the easy way to simply highlight the obvious cowboy poetry cuts from the album—Ain’t No Life After Rodeo, A Cowboy Reel, and…oh-oh, I just realized there are merely two? Nevertheless, it still would’ve been the easy way for Fran to include that pair in her salute, but it would not have been THE COWBOY WAY! Actually there is a trio of what most folks would deem traditional cowboy poems, or at least purt-near such. The third is Calico Fever Blues. Fran mis-handles it Cabin Fever Blues and also chooses not to mention that I sing the piece—the only lyric I’ve ever written my own melody to. Denny Berthiaume—maestro of the highest pianist order—backs me on the saloonhall ivories, with more than just a skosh of difficulty tracking my change-ups, I’m bettin’ Denny would cop to without much prodding.

AS DID Don Edwards when I first cracked the song out a decade ago on the main stage in Elko. My debut brought the house, 800 strong, to their knees with laughter. Foolish Polish-Mafioso-Rodeo-Poet me, I figured it was in response to the top-shelf Will Rogers-esque humor. Poor Don, I worried as I left the stage, how’s he ever going to follow THAT? No problemo. Don saw my 8 ZZillion decibels of raucous audience response and raised me 8 Rock-‘n’-Rowel ZZ’s by saying, I was itchin’ behind stage to step out and accompany Paul’s new song, but at first I thought he was in the key of C and then I realized he had it pretty much surrounded.

Years later Don did accompany me, however—sort of—by putting a melody to my lyric, West Of The Round Corral, and cutting it on his Saddle Songs II album. As I’ve said again and again, I love—I live for—all these connected dots out in the Ol’ Cowpoke Colorin’ Book Cosmos. Thanks, Fran. Thanks, Don. Thanks, Elko. Thanks, Open Path Music Studio—Gordon, Tim, Scott, Lee, who produced ROCK ‘n’ ROWEL. And while I’m at it, thanks, Western Jubilee Recording Company, whose recent Mechanical Royalty Statement included $13.02 for the co-write with Don mentioned above, which covered, by more than a buck, my newsstand bill for WESTERN HORSEMAN and The Fortieth Anniversary issue of ROLLING STONE. Yup, you got it, alright: Rock-‘n’-ROLL, too!

L-R: Andrew Hardin, Sourdough Slim, Don Edwards, Tom Russell and Paul Zarzyski in the green room at the Cowboy Jubilee and Poetry in Carson City, NV

L-R: Andrew Hardin, Paul Zarzyski and Don Edwards with a jug of Reposado 100% Agave Azul in the green room at the Cowboy Jubilee and Poetry in Carson City, NV

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