Amy Hale and Gail Steiger live and work on Arizona’s 50,000-acre Spider Ranch, where they cowboy side by side and share the stage with a blend of story, poetry, and music. Amy is an award-winning author whose forthcoming book, Drinking Wild Water (TTUP, 2025), continues her exploration of place, voice, and the sacred everyday. Gail, a longtime ranch foreman and lifelong songwriter, comes from a storied ranching and literary lineage and has earned national recognition for his documentary Ranch Album and his original music. Together, they bring the lived experience of the working West to audiences across the region.

Chris Isaacs is an Arizona cowboy who has entertained folks from border to border and coast to coast with his poems and stories about the cowboy life.  His tales are fun (and mostly true) about the day-to-day life of the real people who make their living horseback.  He has ran a pack string and punched cows all over the southwest and has made a good share of his living the last few years telling people about the cowboy life he has found.  His performances are fun and will make you think about the life of the people who make their living using a cow’s butt for a compass.  At 81 years of age, he has a world of memories to pass along to you.

Sue Harris, who grew up in Arizona, is a lifelong folksinger whose passion and respect for the West—its stories, history, and lifestyle—are evident from the moment she steps on stage. Harris has a masterful touch with “true western music.” She conveys the feeling of what this music is meant to express: wide open spaces, a way of life, and a particular type of humor indigenous to the West. Her presentations are sometimes quirky, sometimes dramatic, sometimes wistful… and they never fail to draw the listener into the world of the West through her own unique perspective.

She spent many years on the Roster of Performing Artists for the Arizona Commission on the Arts and was inducted in 2010 into Arizona CultureKeepers, an honorary society recognizing individuals dedicated to preserving Arizona’s culture. She has participated in numerous shows with Arizona State Historian Marshall Trimble and Arizona State Balladeer Dolan Ellis, in addition to touring the country with the inimitable New Christy Minstrels.

Harris has been featured at many cowboy gatherings throughout the Southwest and across Canada, and has released two CDs, both of which have enjoyed international airplay. In addition, her recording of Dean Cook’s “Where Do You Go” was included on the Smithsonian Folkways compilation Songs and Stories from Grand Canyon.

An award-winning Australian Bush Poet and nine-time Laureate Award recipient, she once won the richest prize in poetry—a $34,000 tractor. A lifelong horsewoman with experience on a sheep and cattle station in true Man from Snowy River country, she’s also an international horse judge and events commentator. With six acclaimed books and six award-winning CDs, her work ranges from heartfelt to hilarious. For over two decades, her dynamic stage presence has made her a returning favorite across the U.S. and Canada. Tighten your cinches!

Miss Devon & The Outlaw are an award-winning Western duo from Fort Worth, known for warm vocals, playful yodels, sharp harmonies, and lively character work. With honors including a National Western Heritage Award, multiple IWMA accolades, and Miss Devon’s role as the voice of Jessie on the Grammy-winning Woody’s Roundup album, they bring humor, heart, and high spirits to every stage. After 18 years performing together, they’re still having more fun than putting socks on a rooster.

Floyd Beard and his wife, Valerie, ranch in the canyons near Kim, Colorado, where they run a cow/calf operation. A good day involves getting up before the sun is “pinking up the east,” riding, working cattle, and settling down on the porch to watch the sunset. Floyd, who has a gift for putting words together that build vivid pictures in readers’ and listeners’ minds, has been writing and rhyming for over 40 years and is the International Western Music Association’s Male Poet of the Year for 2016, 2017, 2021, and 2023. His most recent CD, Horse Tales and Cow Trails, won the IWMA’s 2021 Cowboy Poetry CD of the Year.

Valerie is a rancher’s wife, teacher, writer, crew cook, quilter, reader, and Nana. She and her husband, Cowboy Poet Floyd Beard, live in Southeast Colorado and run cattle to stay honest. They also keep a few cats around to stay humble. Valerie and Floyd are situated twelve cattle guards from the pavement, and though they are not at the end of the world, you can pretty much see it from the south pasture. She has been writing poetry for about ten years but thinking about it for her lifetime. Her first cowboy poetry CD, No Better Life, was released in 2022, and folks seem to like it. She is also featured in the poetry book Four Aces and a Queen and in the companion CD.

Syd Masters is an award-winning American singer-songwriter of traditional western music and the author of New Mexico’s Official State Cowboy Song. In 2024, he was named the IWMA Male Performer of the Year and received the Western Writers of America Spur Award for “Song of the Year,” along with multiple New Mexico Music Awards honors—making him and his band the most decorated artists in the awards’ 40-year history. A recent Swing Riders album, Sunset on the Rio Grande Revisited, also won the Wrangler Award from the Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Swing Riders bandmates Uncle Bob (multi-instrumentalist) and Jared “Slim J” Putnam (bassist) have performed with Syd since 1998, contributing their renowned musicianship and signature three-part harmonies.
 

Syd Masters & The Swing Riders proudly support veterans and have served as U.S. State Department Cultural Ambassadors, entertaining security personnel in 26 countries. Syd is also an ambassador for Guitars for Vets. The band’s music and appearances have been featured on major TV networks, in the Universal Studios film Paul, and across western media campaigns. Energetic, funny, and fiercely dedicated to preserving vintage western music, Syd Masters & The Swing Riders keep the cowboy tradition alive—one two-step at a time.