Chautauquas were a big part of the American entertainment scene during the last half of the 19th and first part of the 20th centuries.  They died out mostly because of the the invention of motion pictures and radios . . . but they thrived for nearly half a century.  Describing what they did isn't easy because a wide disparity of styles and formats existed among them.  But a national circuit developed, one where traveling troupes of entertainers came through small towns across America on a regular basis.  These shows were in part educational, aimed at bringing the thriving culture of the cities to the rural parts of the country.

The Cowboy Chautauqua Company was born in 1990 on Buck Ramsey's front porch in Amarillo, Texas.  I had stopped off for a visit, and we started talking about putting together a cowboy stage show.  Buck came up with the name chautauqua, but neither of us could spell it.  A trip to the public library took care of that and gave us the name for our new traveling road show. 

We did shows over the next half dozen years, mostly on stages where we could do a one night program that carried audiences on a two hour journey through cowboy culture from the beginning to the present.  It featured performances of traditional and contemporary cowboy music, humor, poetry, storytelling by some of America's best known cowboy entertainers.  The show was well received, and people continued to talk about it after the company disbanded over ten years ago.  Buck Ramsey died about that time, and I simply allowed the company to fade away.

But over the years I've received some encouragement to revise the company, resurrect it, and do more shows.  Buck is no longer with us, nor is J.B. Allen, a mainstay of the show during those formative years.  In recent weeks I've been in contact with a dozen performers, and all of them have agreed to work with us . . . if and when we start doing shows again.  The creation of this site on moli is a step toward doing just that.  It will take some time to get this site to where it should be, but a start has been made. 

Our stage show goes in rounds of performances that are done according to a script, a narration of what we do and why we do it.  It moves quickly with some forty different individual performances packed into that two hour slot.  There's some humor, lots of nostalgia, great songs, engaging poems, and even some storytelling.  The audience is taken on a narrated trip through the culture of the American cowboy - his writings, his music, his art, and his contribution to American history.  If you don't know the world of cowboy entertainment, you may not know these names, but here is a list of those who'll be working with us from time to time. 

Andy Wilkinson - writer, songwriter, singer from Lubbock,  Texas
Phil Martin (me) - writer, poet, songwriter, narrator from Brady, Texas
Dale Burson - instrumentalist (banjo, mando, guitar), and singer from Channing, Texas
Michael Stevens - guitarist, singer/songwriter from Alpine, Texas
Glenn Moreland - fiddle player, singer/songwriter, humorist from Ft. Davis, Texas
Rod Taylor - singer/songwriter from Cimarron, N. Mex.
Rick Brumley - singer from Sanford, Texas
Darin Brookman - poet from Hollis, Oklahoma
Guy Logsdon - folklorist, singer from Tulsa, Oklahoma
Andy Hedges - singer/songwriter, reciter from Lubbock, Texas
Chris Isaacs - poet, humorist from Eager, Arizona
Stan Cobb - artist, poet, humorist from Dallas, Texas
R.W. Hampton - singer/songwriter from Miami, N. Mexico
Bill Larsen - poet from Casper, Wyoming

We'll probably be adding more performers later on, but we're off to a good start.  This site will grow daily as I add more information about our performers, their works, and what can be expected of our company.  It's cowboy to the core . . . and it's good!  And it's nothing like you'd expect from a bunch of cowboy.

PMC, 4/20/08