Paul Zarzyski -- Musings from Planet UniPoet:

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