Andy Hedges

Andy Hedges is a songster, reciter, storyteller, guitarist, and collector of cowboy songs and poems. The son of an Italian schoolteacher and a rodeo cowboy turned preacher, Andy was born in Lubbock, Texas. He grew up in the small community of Tokio, Texas, where his family paid rent on an old farmhouse by looking after a few head of cattle. It was there that Andy fell in love with traditional music by listening to his father’s cassettes of cowboy songs.
Andy’s vast and varied repertoire includes classic cowboy poetry recitations, obscure cowboy songs, dust bowl ballads, and blues. He also hosts a podcast, Cowboy Crossroads which features in-depth interviews with fellow musicians and poets. Andy has performed many times with folk legend Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and the duo’s performance at the 60th Newport Folk Festival was named one of the “10 Best Things We Saw” by Rolling Stone.

Dom Flemons

Dr. Dom Flemons “The American Songster" received an Honorary Doctorate from Northern Arizona University and he's a GRAMMY Award Winner with four GRAMMY nominations, Two-Time EMMY Nominee, International Acoustic Music Award Grand Prize Winner, and was a United States Artists Fellow. He is a musician based in the Chicago area and he is famously known as "The American Songster®" since his repertoire covers over one hundred years of American roots music; including country, folk, bluegrass, Americana, and the blues. Flemons is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, music scholar, historian, actor, narrator, host, slam poet, record collector, podcaster, and the creator, host, and producer of the American Songster Radio Show on WSM in Nashville, TN. He is considered an expert player on the banjo, guitar, harmonica, jug, percussion, quills, fife and rhythm bones. He is the Co-Founder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and the Founder of American Songster Productions.

FUN FACT: Dom Flemons competed and WON a Merengue Dance Competition in the Dominican Republic during an Artist Excursion on the Cayamo Cruise.

Pipp Gillette

Pipp Gillette lives and works on the family ranch near Lovelady, Texas, where his grandfather started raising cattle and cotton in 1912. Pipp and his late brother Guy received the Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Traditional Western Album of 2011 and the 2013 Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Original Western Composition for their performance of the Waddie Mitchell song "Trade Off.” Drawing on a lifelong interest in Western history and music, Pipp plays traditional cowboy music on guitar, banjo, harmonica and bones. Pipp’s first solo CD, Singing Songs by Waddie and Pippreceived the Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Traditional Western Album of 2016.

Hal Cannon

Hal Cannon is a multifaceted artist—songwriter, musician, radio producer, and folklorist—known for his lifelong dedication to folk music and the cultural heritage of the American West. He has released original music, most notably a 2011 self-titled album produced with Jim Rooney and Utah musicians, and performed with groups like 3hattio and the Deseret String Band, which specialized in 19th-century Western music. Cannon co-founded the Western Folklife Center and the Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and has produced numerous acclaimed radio and television documentaries, including NPR’s What’s In A Song and the Emmy-winning Why the Cowboy Sings. His contributions to arts and folklore have earned him multiple awards, including the Will Rogers Lifetime Achievement Award and several Wrangler Awards.

Joel Nelson

Joel Nelson has spent decades working on some of the most respected cow outfits in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Hawaii, specializing in breaking colts. He and his wife Sylvia work together on horseback operating the Anchor Ranch near Alpine, Texas, and raising Angus cattle. Nelson’s ability to take the raw materials of ranch life and express them in poetry have made him a regular performer at the annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nev., and resulted in his being named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2009. His "Breaker in the Pen" album of cowboy verse is the only cowboy poetry ever nominated for a Grammy Award. Nelson was the 2020 Ranching Heritage Association Working Cowboy Award recipient, one of the most prestigious awards recognizing an outstanding individual who makes his living primarily horseback caring for livestock on a daily basis.