2025 Entertainers

Cowboys and Indians Magazine has called him the Charlie Russell of Western Music. Western Horseman Magazine has declared his Vaquero Song to be one of the greatest Western songs of all time.

True West Magazine named him Best Living Western Solo Musician four years in a row.

Dave Stamey has been a cowboy, a mule packer, a dude wrangler, and is now one of the most popular Western entertainers working today. He has been voted seven times Entertainer of the Year, seven times Male Performer of the Year and Five times Songwriter of the Year by the Western Music Association, and received the Will Rogers Award from the Academy of Western Artists.

He's delighted audiences in twenty three states, and finds that he prefers this to being stomped by angry horses.In November of 2016 Dave was inducted into the Western Music Hall of Fame.

Brigid and Johnny are a nationally acclaimed Montana-based duo who captivate audiences from coast to coast with their charisma, enthusiasm, and authenticity as they create a unique blend of Western Americana, singer songwriter, folk, swing, blues, cowboy music, poetry, storytelling, and more.

Though only 24 and 19 years old respectively, they have decades of performing experience between them and have appeared at such prestigious venues and events as the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the International Storytelling Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Grand Ole Opry.

Brigid and Johnny are excited to share with you their love of Montana, Western culture, and voracious appetite for good music.

This year they will perform as a duo and Brigid will have her own poetry set as well.

Jessica Schley is a writer, rider, and rancher in Santa Ynez, California. She was raised on a multigenerational working cattle ranch in the Happy Canyon area of Santa Barbara County.

Jessica serves as the Chair of the Legacy Council for the California Rangeland Trust, the largest land trust in the state. Their focus is on conserving the rangelands and ranches in California that give us the food we eat, the views we love, the air we breathe, and the water we drink.

Jessica's passion is to elevate the story of ranching and conservation, to ensure that saving ranchland remains important to everyone.

Bill Dale began to write poetry in 2022 on a whim. “I challenged myself to see if I could put a story together in rhyme. Once I started, I found the challenge to be addictive.”

Finding inspiration in the talents of Dave Stamey and Red Stegall, Dale began writing about life experiences and personal observations. “I’m not sure that what I write is textbook ‘cowboy poetry,’ per se. I tend to draw on a cowboy’s perspective of living on the fringes of urban life. There has always been a story in the interaction between urbanites and country folk and there probably always will be.”

Bill has spent his life in the cattle industry; from the ranch to the halls of academia, to an advocate for beef in the American diet.

Bill joined us as the emcee at the 2024 Cowpoke Fall Gathering and will be making his debut with some of his original poems at the 2025 Gathering.