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Source: Standard-Examiner, Ogden, UtahOct.存倉 25--Tom Russell's songwriting is as wide as the Grand Canyon. He has tackled many subjects, but his heart, pen and pick always seem to wander back westward in subject matter. That is what makes him such a natural fit for the Heber Cowboy Poetry Festival and Buckaroo Gathering, which takes place Oct. 31 through Nov. 2 in and around Heber City."I am honored to be asked back to Heber City," said Russell, speaking from his home outside El Paso, Texas. "It is a very deep honor for me to be asked to those festivals. I always show up and lean heavily on my cowboy material, and not try and get too artsy for 'em." He laughed. "Seriously, I totally respect this, and that crowd has always been loyal and kind to us."Russell is also in the midst of putting together what he believes will be a double album that will be a cowboy folk opera. The project will combine 10 Russell originals with classic cowboy tunes and full overture. He has been working with several artists, including Salt Lake City Western folklorist and musician Hal Cannon, at whose home Russell played a house concert a few years back. Russell also knows Cannon well from the latter's work as the founding director for the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nev., and its Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering. About 15 years ago, Russell and his wife Nadine were married (with best men Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Ian Tyson in attendance) at the Elko Festival.Rancho operaRussell has tackled a historic concept album before, with his 1999 collection, "The Man From God Knows Where.""It was about my ancestors coming from Ireland and Norway," said Russell. "I used Norwegian and Irish musical artists, and it was sort of a staged musical. For this one, I want to tell a Western story."Russell's brother's wife grew up on a Spanish land grant ranch in California."She has a tremendous deep history in the West, going back a hundred years. She shot a bear in her kitchen about 20 years ago -- so, pretty exciting stuff. I am working her into this, thematically. And there is a man, a renegade cowboy, based loosely on my brother."As the cowboy and the real-deal California girl come together within the story, Russell wants to use traditional cowboy songs as backdrop."I'll have to work with stuff I can get permission for. I think I've got a Leadbelly song and a Tex Ritter song. And then, I've already recorded friends of mine -- Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Augie Meyers and Eliza Gilkyson -- doing traditional cowboy songs that you will kind of hear in the background of this. I want it to be sort of a huge film on the West, with me writing the original story. I will have an overture, just as a Broadway show would, and it will contain strains of things like 'Old Paint' and 'Streets of Laredo.' I think it will turn a lot of people on to those old songs."Then I will also have the original songs that I have made for it. A lot of them have been written already. I will do some of these, to warm them up, in my show."He plans to record the record with the help of 31-member Norwegian Wind Ensemble, who he worked with previously on the album "Aztec Jazz," delivered earlier this year. The album, which is neither truly jazz nor Aztec, is a conglomeration of Russell's music and singing, orchestrated for the world-class ensemble. This was for a one-off performance, and Russell had not expected to release anything from it. But he ended up capturing three songs on video and the concert on album."It is odd for people, because I used the word jazz tongue-in-cheek. I named it for a painting, an Indian-looking guy playing a sax on the cover of the record. It is really not a jazz record. I write some Spanish stuff, some that sounds Tex-Mex. It is me, what I do in concert, with a wind ensemble beside me who does not overpower."He said they worked on the project to make it so the winds would just enhance Russell's tunes, rather than overwhelm it.Said Russell: "The semi-lush backing doesn't get in the way. It has become popular among the fans, and it was certainly exciting to do. It was almost like being in front of a jet plane -- there is so much power in back of you, pushing the song along, the melodies."Western countryRussell grew up in a musical America where what is called country today would not have passed muster. The genre was then called country Western for a reason."One of many things I am a big fan of is Western music, of that feel," said Russell. "That is just my trip."He is not, however, much of a fan of current songwriting."I grew up in an era where we had people who came before me, like Johnny Cash and Dylan -- the people who invented songwriting as we know it. And, I also grew up as a little kid on cowboy music and Broadway. There was so much in there. Now, I don't think there is a lot in there. I want to throw that Western stuff back into the popular framework with this thing I am working on."Russell writes for the Western-themed journal "Ranch & Reata." The current issue includes his piece on Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and he is finishing one on Johnny Cash's Western music. "One thing I say that is relevant, is that they called country music country Western back then儲存 because half of it was Western! Look at 'El Paso' -- huge hit."But then, in the late '70s and early '80s, they cleansed it -- bleached the Western right out of the title. Then Garth Brooks crossed it over to pop. The old songs, those were great songs, heroic songs, and, what they replaced it with, from my standpoint as a fan, has not nearly been as good."You doubt it? Russell suggests taking a gander at the country charts from 1950 through the present."Look at what were the top 10 songs," he said. "You can decide which ones you know by heart, and are great songs, and which you have forgotten. Of the last 10 or 15 or 20 years, how many can you say are great, memorable, will stand the test of time? The answer is none, for me. And the voices rarely sound authentic. There is a falsified twang."When Johnny Cash or George Jones sang, you knew who these people were and where they came from. You knew where Hank Williams was coming from. You sure did."Contact reporter Linda East Brady at 801-625-4279 or lbrady@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter @LindaEastBrady.More goings-on at Heber ValleyThis is the Heber Valley Cowboy Poetry Festival and Gathering schedule of main events for 2013. Entrance to the buckaroo fair and some entertainment is $10. Other fees may apply for some events and workshops.For further details and a complete list of events, go to hebervalleycowboypoetry.com.Featured eventsThursday, Oct. 31Old Midway stage (Midway Town Hall, 110 West Main, Midway)* 5 p.m. -- Cowboy Steak Dinner and Show. The kickoff with entertainment by Red Desert Ramblers, Dave Stamey, Belinda Gail, Gary Allegretto and Ian Espinoza, Kristyn Harris, and Miss Devon and the Outlaw, with Andy Nelson as emcee and poet, with steak or chicken, potatoes, salad, roll, drink and dessert. $40 VIP, $30 general admission.Friday, Nov. 1Main stage (Wasatch High School Auditorium, 101 E. 200 North. Heber City)* 11 a.m. -- Lynn Anderson and Dave Stamey, Waddie Mitchell and Jesse Smith, $25-$40.* 3 p.m. -- Sons Of The San Joaquin and The Sweetback Sisters, Waddie Mitchell, Jeff Carson and Rich O'Brien, $25-$30.* 7:30 p.m. -- Bar J Wranglers and Waddie Mitchell, Tribute to the Sons of the San Joaquin, $25-$40.Tombstone stage (Wasatch High School Lecture Hall)* 10 p.m. -- Poets: R.P Smith, Yvonne Hollenbeck, Andy Nelson and C.R. Wood, $10.* 1 p.m. -- Poets: Jeff Carson, Jesse Smith, R.P. Smith, and Sam Deleeuw, $10.Homestead stage (Homestead Resort 700 North Homestead Dr., Midway)* 6 p.m. -- Dinner show with Joey+Rory, Kristyn Harris and poet Andy Nelson, $69Cactus stage (Wasatch High School South Hall classrooms)* 10 a.m. -- Yodeling class by Gary McMahan, payable to Gary McMahan or pre-register with the Main Office on arrival. Information: cowgirl@hebervalleycowboypoetry.com. $25.VIP Campfire stage (Wasatch High School Little Theatre)* Noon -- Joey+Rory, $50.* 2 p.m. -- Waddie Mitchell And Miss Devon and the Outlaw, $40.* 4 p.m. -- Cook Brothers, Richard Lee Cody, $30.* 6 p.m. -- Dave Stamey and Belinda Gail, $40.Midway Town Hall stage* 6 p.m. --Tom Russell and Brenn Hill, with Jesse Smith as poet and emcee, $30.* 9 p.m. -- Buckaroo Ball, with the Sweetback Sisters, $15, $10/students, seniors and groupsSaturday, Nov. 2Main stage* 7 p.m. -- Dinner show with Dave Stamey and Miss Devon and the Outlaw, $69Tombstone stage* 11 a.m. -- Bar J Wranglers and Belinda Gail, Waddie Mitchell and Andy Nelson, $25-$40.* 3 p.m. -- Baxter Black, Gary Allegretto & Ian Espinoza, Waddie Mitchell, $25-$40.* 7:30 p.m. -- Joey+Rory and The Sweetback Sisters, Waddie Mitchell, Yvonne Hollenbeck, $25-$40.Homestead stage* 10 a.m. -- Poets: Yvonne Hollenbeck, Jesse Smith, Jolynne Kirkwood, and R.P Smith, $10.* 1 p.m. -- Poets: Andy Nelson, Jeff Carson, Paul Bliss, and R.P. Smith, $10.Cactus stage* 10 a.m. and noon -- Harmonica class by Gary Allegretto, $25, payable to Gary Allegretto or pre-register with the Main Office on arrival. Information: cowgirl@hebervalleycowboypoetry.com.VIP Campfire stage* 10 a.m. -- Tribute to Marty Robbins/Rollie Stevens, Call of the West, $25.* Noon -- Tom Russell, $50.* 2 p.m. -- Baxter Black, $25-$40.* 4 p.m. -- Lynn Anderson/Rollie Stevens/Call of the West, $50.* 6 p.m. -- Brenn Hill/Andy Nelson/Trinity Seely, $30.Old Midway stage* 5:30 p.m. -- Sons of the San Joaquin and Gary McMahan with poet and emcee Waddie Mitchell, $30.Nov. 1-2Round-up stage (Wasatch High School Library)* 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. -- Open Microphone -- you are the entertainment. To sign up, call Lynnie Espinoza, 435-671-8478, no additional charge.Sunday, Nov. 3Homestead Cowboy Brunch (Homestead Resort, 700 Homestead Drive, Midway), $30.PREVIEW* WHAT: Heber Valley Cowboy Poetry Festival and Gathering* WHO: Tom Russell* WHEN AND WHERE: 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1, with Brenn Hill at the Midway Town Hall stage, 110 W. Main St., Midway; Noon Saturday, Nov. 2, at the VIP Campfire stage, 101 E. 200 North, Heber City* TICKETS: 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1 -- $30. Noon Saturday, Nov. 2 -- $50; available from hebervalleycowboypoetry.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 the Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) Visit the Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) at .standard.net Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉