Cowboy Gathering turns 17

Top hand cowboy music and poetry aren't the only attractions at this weekend's seventeenth annual Grand Encampment Cowboy Gathering (GECG) at Grand View Park complex in Encampment.

Other activities include a campfire jam session, song writer's workshop, stick horse rodeo for folks of all ages, hot dogs and hamburgers, continental breakfast, cowboy church and historic tours of the Grand Encampment Museum.

Cowboy music and poetry events include a Friday evening open mic session, Saturday's high noon Western Entertainment Roundup featuring 15 of the region's top entertainers, all climaxed by the "All-Star Cowboy Poetry & Music Show" at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Encampment High School gym.

Headlining the big show is Dave Stamey, often called "the Charlie Russell of Western Music." True West Magazine also 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 23 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.

The popular performer is making an encore appearance at the Gathering, having entertained during the 2012 event.

On stage emceeing with Stamey will be local cowboy and western folksinger Daron Little. Cowboy poet Thatch Elmer and Josh & Long Haul Band will also perform.

Honoring Carbon County Pioneers Tim and Margo Barkhurst will cap the evening along with announcing the winner of the much sought after R. G. Finney print "Suzi & Tuff as Flip". (See accompanying story on page 15).