Authentic heroes of song and word bring Cowboy Show to thrill Spokane Symphony listeners

Apr 14, 2010

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow: 464-7071

SPOKANE—The Spokane Symphony  will continue their SuperPops Series with The Cowboy Show featuring guest artists Wylie Gustafson & The Wild West and Cowboy Poet Paul Zarzyski at the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox on Saturday, April. 24, 2010, at 8 p.m.

In this era of prepackaged superstars - of pale imitations of country music being pushed onto the public by faceless media giants - the music of Wylie & The Wild West is a beacon of truth and honest beauty. By being himself, Wylie Gustafson has become one of the most exciting and endearing acts in contemporary music: Country, Western, Folk or otherwise.

Growing up in northern Montana, Wylie Gustafson’s musical tastes were initially influenced by his rancher and veterinarian father who loved to sing and play guitar. “The SierryPeaks,” “The Bad Brahama Bull,” “The Blue-Tailed Fly,” and “Red RiverValley” were a handful of the songs imprinted into Wylie’s repertoire at an early age. His career as a performer began in high school when he reluctantly joined his brother’s band as a bass player. After two years of college, Wylie headed to Los Angeles to pursue a music career. It was there that Wylie & The Wild West got its start. The band’s sound borrowed elements of Western swing, cowboy, yodeling, honky-tonk, rock-a-billy, and traditional country. The members of the band include Ray Doyle-- guitar, baritone guitar, mandolin and harmony vocals, T. Scot Wilburn-- guitar, fiddle, steel, and vocals, and Rick Bryceson-- drums and vocals.

Wylie & The Wild West have played thousands of gigs around the world: more than 50 appearances on the Grand Ole Opry; a segment on Late Night with Conan O’Brien; a guest spot on A Prairie Home Companion; bookings at the LincolnCenter and the KennedyCenter; and 10 previous appearances at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

Whether playing for a crowd of 50 or 5,000, Wylie’s goal is always the same: “To win a crowd with good music and make ’em feel like they got their money’s worth.” He says, “There’s really nothing like putting a smile on someone’s face... taking them to a place they haven’t been before with your music.”

Joining the evening’s performance is Paul Zarzyski, who has made an indelible impression with his poetry in not only the world of word but also as a performer: “Mr. Zarzyski alternates between bluster and lyricism. For the former, he uses lopingly metered stanzas and punch-drunk, self-mythologizing bravura…. But he proves equally adept at meditative free verse….”—Megan Harlan, The New York Times Book Review

Paul Zarzyski, the recipient of the 2005 Governor's Arts Award for Literature, has been spurring words wild across the open range of the page and calling it Poetry for 33 years. In the early '70s, he heeded Horace Greeley's "go west young man, go west" advice and received his Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from The University of Montana, where he studied with Richard Hugo. In the same breath, he took up a second "lucrative" vocation—bareback bronc riding. He rode both the amateur and the ProRodeo circuits, hung his hooks up in his late 30s, then cracked back out, after turning 40, for a couple more years on the senior circuit or, as Paul prefers to call it, The Masters. On the lee side of his rodeo roughstock years, these days he "makes his living" (to borrow the title of a James Dickey essay) Barnstorming for Poetry.

Paul has been a featured performer at the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering for the last 20 years, has toured Australia and England, and has recited at the National Book, Folk, and Storytelling Festivals, The Santa Clarita and Monterey Cowboy Poetry and Music Festivals, The ProRodeo Hall of Fame, The Library of Congress, and with the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also featured, in June 1999, on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, aired from The Mother Lode Theater in Butte, Montana.

Tickets range from $27 to $54 and are available in advance at the Spokane Symphony Ticket Office, 1001 W. Sprague, or by calling 509-624-1200. Tickets are also available at all TicketsWest outlets or by calling 1-800-325-SEAT and at spokanesymphony.org.

CALENDAR LISTING:

The Cowboy Show with Wylie Gustafson & The Wild West and poet Paul Zarzyski Pops Concert; Saturday, Apr. 24, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. in the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox. Tickets are $27 to $54; Call the Spokane Symphony Ticket Office at (509) 624-1200 or purchase in person at the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox Box Office, 1001 W. Sprague; tickets are also available through TicketsWest outlets or by calling 325-SEAT or 1-800-325-SEAT or online at www.spokanesymphony.org