Best of the West

OUT HERE IN THE West, there’s no shortage of cowboy entertainment. Neither time nor distance separate you much from cowboy poets by the dozens who hold audiences enthralled with rhyming verse, or scores of songsters who enchant crowds with mesmerizing melodies.

By any measure, Brenn Hill and Andy Nelson are numbered among the best Western entertainers. Individually, they hold honors aplenty recognizing their skill as writers and performers. But they offer something unusual, perhaps unique: a stage-show that combines the duo’s talents in carefully orchestrated duets of song and poetry. Beyond taking turns at the microphone to share song, then poem, then song, and so on—a common technique in cowboy entertainment—Brenn and Andy arrange their compositions in complementary pairings that blend verse and stanza; each song interlaced with a poem to double down on an idea, an emotion, or a laugh.

CowboyPoetry.com describes Andy Nelson as “a modern-day cowboy with a somewhat twisted funny bone…. His extraordinary original writings, combined with his unusual facial expressions and body language, leave audiences holding their sides and trying to catch their collective breath.”

In a word, Andy is funny. His poetry and stories expose the ofttimes insanity of Western life. Among his numerous honors, the Western Music Association has named Andy “Male Poet of the Year” on several occasions.

Brenn Hill is likewise accomplished as a solo performer.

For more than two decades, he has stood under a cowboy hat and behind a microphone on countless stages entertaining audiences, blending his voice with bending guitar strings in a performance style all his own. The songs he sings are, also, mostly his own, earning Brenn recognition as one of the premier musical chroniclers of cowboy life.

Western Horseman magazine called Brenn “one of the most talented singer-songwriters in the contemporary cowboy music scene.” The recently released Rocky Mountain Drifter is his fourteenth album, taking its place on a list of critically acclaimed releases that are an integral part of the canon of cowboy music.

ONE-OF-A-KIND, TIMES TWO

As remarkable as they are individually, as a duo on stage their talents mingle and multiply, resulting in a show that will make you laugh (a lot), make you think, cause a lump in your throat, and send you away wanting more.

When the house lights go down, the big screens light up. The show is accompanied by a colorful backdrop of ever-changing photographs of stunning western landscapes, cattle on the range, horseback cowboys at work, and other images of the West.

Always popular, when Brenn performs, is his rollicking “Buckaroo Tattoo,” a song about a tough-asnails, top-hand cowgirl reputed to be secretly adorned with body art. Brenn sings,

She can rope and ride/a little better than me./She sure is a sight/for a cowboy to see./ And she don’t come down/until the hard work’s through—/But take it from me, don’t ask to see/the buckaroo tattoo.

Andy Nelson, "...a modern-day cowboy with a somewhat twisted funny bone."

Brenn Hill, "...one of the most talented singer-songwriters in the contemporary cowboy music scene."

With the audience enthralled and clapping in time, Brenn plays along as Andy steps up to microphone and serves up a helping of “Branding Pen Barbie”:

Her designer jeans were painted-on tight,/they were dry-cleaned, steam-pressed, and new/Her gaping blouse showed her black camisole/…and a couple of other things too.

The tributes to cowgirl distractions continues, verse to stanza, turning the crowd unruly with hilarity. But the show features thoughtful, introspective moments as well.

The hours I spend upon a steed/are hours suspended in time,/that fill my void and every need/and grant rhythm to my rhyme.

Andy recites those lines and more from his poem, “The Whole Man,” trading time at the microphone with Brenn’s song, “Ridin’ Job.”

We rode the Glory Trail my friend/that leads right straight to God;/Still searchin’ everywhere west/to find a ridin’ job.

And so, goes the show, with Andy and Brenn weaving together songs and recitations strengthened by the combination. Audiences take away the enjoyment of being entertained by one of the West’s best cowboy poets and a cowboy singer at the top of his game. But by braiding song and story together, the result is a sum greater than its parts—one plus one equals three, or four, or ten. Or, even, the cowboy version of “these go to eleven.”

That’s why, when you see Brenn Hill and Andy Nelson on stage together, you definitely get the Best of the West.

—Rod Miller is a four-time winner and six-time finalist for the Western Writers of America Spur Award. He is also winner and finalist for the Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award. Information about his fiction, nonfiction, and poetry can be found at www.writerRodMiller.com.