406-245-0734

"He Keeps Old West Alive"

by Mark McDaniel

Courtesy of

Mineral Independent - February 23, 2005

Approximately 75 spectators at the Superior Elementary School were treated to a night of wholesome entertainment valued in

the humor of cowboy life on Wednesday.

Montana's Singing Cowboy, TJ Casey, stopped by the school on Monday and Tuesday where he spent the days teaching and

performing for students in preparation for a Wednesday evening Cowboy Poetry concert.

According to the Western Folklife Center web-site, Cowboy Poetry is as old as cowboys.

For lack of better things to do after a hard day on the range, cowboys of the old west would sit around the camp fire at night

and entertain one another with poems, tall tales known as "windies" or just plain good ol' stories.

Casey regularly performs his unique brand of entertainment for crowds, large and small throughout his home state of Montana

as well as traveling and performing all over America.

"I believe in our roots and heritage, said Casey, I've got a story to tell. We all need to stand up and protect the traditions and

legacies we've inherited.

"I want to be an image for kids to look up to, and hopefully instill in them this same love of country and customs I know and

respect.

 Without our heritage, our children lose focus, without our children's focus, we lose our world."

The concert first featured elementary students reciting some of the cowboy style poetry they had learned to write over the

past few days.

"The students were given several western magazines to read and came up with poems from things they'd read," said Casey.
He then went into performance of some of the award winning music he's written over the years.

In addition to being published in the "Big Roundup", an anthology of the best classic contemporary cowboy poetry in America,

Casey has won dozens of national awards for singing, songwriting and western poetry.

He has been nominated in the last few years for many awards, including being one of the Top-5 finalists for Rising Star and Western

Swing Album of the Year and one of the Top-10 finalists for Western Song and Western Music Male of the Year. He has opened

 shows for Ian Tyson, Merle Haggard, Dirks Bentley, and the Everly Brothers and many others.

Casey is a member of the Academy of Western Artists, The Rocky Mountain Association of Fairs, Wyoming Association of Fairs,

Arts Northwest, Montana Arts Council's Artist Registry, North Dakota Council on the Arts Artist Roster, Alaska State Council

on the Arts, Reunion of Professional Entertainers, and the Country Music Association.
 

BACK TO TOP