IWMA Pre-Convention Reception Performance

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David Nidel, Brad, & Bonnie Exton

Sound by Dave Levenson

Chuckwagon cookouts, brandings and barn parties. Cowboy Gatherings. State Parks, Heritage Centers and Western Museums. Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana and even Canada. If you're traveling these parts, looking for music honoring the western way of life, you'll likely find the award winning Ramblin' Rangers, with their signature

“Boots on the Ground” sound. Brad and BonnieJo Exton, retired rangers based out of the Black Hills of South Dakota, bring a special insight to their story telling, music and lore. Songs of joy and heartache, of labor and love. Singing to the hearts of romantics everywhere. 

Songs that bring out the nostalgia of the Old West. Entertainers and songwriters, the Rangers offer their unique sound blending Bonnie Jo's sweet harmonies with Brad's smooth, easy listening voice. It all adds up to the listener experience the Ramblin' Rangers took aim at when they began working as Rangers in the forests, parks and monuments throughout their lives and careers in the West. Have Guitars, Will Ramble! Talents: Musician, Singer, Songwriter Awards: 2020 Working Cowboy Song of the Year. For more information contact them at: 

605-745-5015,

ramblinrangers@yahoo.com, http://www.ramblinrangers.com/

Described as having a voice “as pure as the prairie wind”, Patty Clayton is an adept performer and songwriter of stories who has gained recognition with her buckaroo ballads and western swing, a genre inspired by her life and passion for living in the West and the settling in the Pacific Northwest of her ancestors with a history rich in ranching in Idaho and eastern Oregon. She has won numerous awards and honors for her compositions over the past three decades. You

can follow her adventures and travels on the musical trails on her website at:

www.pattyclayton.com.

Tony Duarte and I hangs his hat in Peralta, NM.  He was introduced to Country and Western Music as a kid while listening to the jukebox in his uncle Manuel’s bar in San Elizario, Texas.  “San Eli” is a small town with a colorful history of Conquistadores and Gunslingers. The Conquistadores and Gunslingers were gone but the town was typical of a small border farm and dairy community with a kinship for Western and Mexican music.  That jukebox played music by Hank Williams, Marty Robbins, and the like. Tony may be contacted at:

duarte3006@yahoo.com.

Tom Hawk, from Cumberland, Maryland, has been performing cowboy and western music and yodeling since 2008. He is particularly fond of the songs from the first half of the twentieth

century. He has performed at the IWMA Convention, the National Traditional Country Music Association Festival (NTCMA), and across the United States and in Europe. His first CD, Yodeling Familiar Trails, in collaboration with Greg Latta on instrumentals, came out in November 2010 and received the Rural Roots Music Commission/NTCMA award for the Best Traditional Yodeling CD for 2011. His second CD, Earning My Spurs, also in collaboration with Greg Latta, came out in February 2018 and received the Rural Roots Music Commission/NTCMA award for the Best Western Yodeling CD for 2018. Tom serves as

Treasurer of the East Coast Chapter. He may be reached at:

 301-722-0815, 

thawk@frostburg.edu  www.tomhawkyodeler.com.

PJ Ross was born in America’s most mispronounced —if not misunderstood—town; Salt Lick City, allegedly to three different mothers, so he took after his father, but was too late to catch up. PJ went directly from crawling to ramblin’ to drinkin’ and back to crawling. He’s worked ranches across the country, many of which survived his employment, and rodeoed from Saskatoon to the Cape of Lost Hope in greater Gondwanaland. PJ’s cowboy poetry won him a Nobull Prize, for which he did not send the money order claiming fee. He resides in space 27 behind the Walmart but you’d be surprised how roomy a vintage F-50 can be, even with 3 dogs, a snake, an incontinent bull calf, a couple crows, and a wife who collects catalytic converters. You mighta seen PJ on TV, if you’re a big fan of closed-circuit, ‘specially at the Walmart. You haven’t heard anything Contact PJ at:

 paul@globaladventure.us.

Michael Coy is a westerner through and through. He grew up on a 120 acre farm/ranch in Northern Wyoming, near Powell, in the 1960s and comes from a line of homesteaders and adventurers who settled the West in the 19 th century. Most of his songs recall memories or stories from the West, songs about homesteaders and farmers, as well as songs about cowboys and ranchers. Michael has lived, worked, raised a family, and performed music (often with his wife, Donna) in the Albuquerque area for more than 50 years. His song, “Great Grandpa” won first place in the ‘children’s songs’ category at the 2017 New Mexico Music Awards.

mmcoy3@msn.com

Kerry Grombacher writes contemporary western songs and plays guitar and mandolin. His song, Range of the Buffalo, was named 2021 Song of the Year by the International Western Music Association. Written in the spirit of the troubadours of old, Kerry Grombacher’s songs paint vivid portraits and tell the fascinating stories of working cowboys and old camp cooks, roadside motels and prisons, wildland firefighters, cattle rustlers and wolf trappers – the landmarks and denizens of the west. You’ll find Kerry at Cowboy Poetry Gatherings and Folk Festivals, singing his songs, playing mandolin as a sideman, and picking in the jam sessions and around the campfires until the last song is sung. 

Contact Kerry at:

512-296-7833,

kgrombacher@yahoo.com, www.kgrombacher.com

Carol Markstrom is an award-winning Western singer-songwriter who writes about significant

people, places, and events of the West, including its Indigenous cultures. Her recent fourth album, Mile After Mile, is described this way by Country Music People Magazine: “American folk music washes gently against Americana… a terrific release from a major singer.” Carol’s music is played by DJs worldwide, and her music has received awards from the Academy of Western Artists, the Rural Roots Music Commission, the Red Carpet Award Show in the Netherlands, and Spirit Wind Records. Carol may be reached at:

Carol@carolmarkstrommusic.com

Scott Tonelson grew up in Bayside, New York listening to Hank Williams, Sons of the Pioneers, Gene Autry, Jimmy Rodgers, Merle Haggard, Merle Travis, Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, Classic Opera, and Chamber music. ScottT has won flat picking bluegrass guitar contests from New York to California. He was a founding member of several string bands including Crystal River, Pony Express, and The Reptile Ramblers. He regularly performs throughout the West and has performed in Canada, Philippines, and Australia. He has shared the stage with Doyle Dykes,

Michael O’Dorn, Bob Saxton, Marilyn Tuttle, Juni Fisher, Jerry Hall and Trick Shot, Eric

Cutshall, Eric Gorsuch, Almeda Bradshaw, Belinda Gail and a bunch of other fine musician

friends. ScottT has recorded one album and is currently working on a new Americana music

album that will feature a mix of Western ballads, Old Time Country, and Ragtime tunes. He is based in beautiful downtown Garden Grove, CA. Scott is an active member of the International Western Music Association and the IWMA California Chapter, as well as the Academy of Western Artists. Visit Scot at:

714-260-7932, scotttonelson@scottmusic.com,

http://www.scotttmusic.com, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU-

HAJxnszMcAlhVBVK_iZQ

Randy Palmer is a cross between a painter and a poet. I don’t mean fine art but scraping,

sanding, priming, make it like new, painter. You see Randy has roots deep inside a bucket. A son of a painting paint contractor, Randy has an ingrown desire to make things beautiful. You read it in his lyrics and you hear it in his voice as he brings his songs to life. Songs from down deep in the bucket, with clean lines, brushed to bring living into a sweeter, better focus. Every song a reflective rendition of life at its most basic core. No apologies for songs close to the heart. Randy celebrates frailties, friendships, and family. Join him for an adventure. A deep dive into the interesting and intoxicating twists and turns of the joy of life. Randy may be contacted at:

randypalmermusic@gmail.com , randy@randypalmermusic.com, 

(806) 282-2970