The stars aligned and we came to run a lovely guest ranch in the Chiricahua mountains of southeastern Arizona some years ago.

No sooner had we completed our contract to open the luxury Lodge and Spa at Primland in Meadows of Dan, Virginia than my wife Susan said, “I’m ready for adventure!” It was then that the owner of Sunglow Ranch called to invite us to visit.

Flying into Tucson we set out in our rental car down I-10 east when about two hours later we passed the outpost towns of Sunsites and Pearce. Soon after, leaving the pavement behind we drove another 7 miles down Turkey Creek Road (think dirt, dust, and rocks) to reach Sunglow Ranch–a remote and beguiling setting in the ancient Turkey Creek caldera of a long extinct volcano. Here Mexican, Chokonen Apache, and finally Europeans fought over precious water, land, and stagecoach routes through native Apache homeland.

It was about then Susan uttered the memorable retort, “There had better be a miracle at the end of this road.” We had long ago passed the sign that said, “No Services beyond this point.”

In some ways it was a miracle, even more so today as we look back and recall this sublime adventure in our lives. Our mailbox was 28 miles away past the Border Control checkpoint at the post office in Sunsites. Evading diamondback and Mojave rattlesnakes required daily vigilance although we came to love this sky island country where the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts meet. It is a truly remote area that is surprisingly rich in wildlife. Even jaguars and mountain lions were at home here along with coatimundi, javelina, scorpions, and tarantulas.

When you live in places like this, you soon learn the importance of arranging for visiting musicians and performers for our guests–as they became our musical interludes as well. One such musician, Joel Eliot, would drive up from Sierra Vista, Arizona to play for us. It was here at Sunglow Ranch that Joel performed and introduced us to Cowboy Music.

Now whenever we tell someone we love Cowboy Music, they will invariably agree they enjoy country music too. We try to explain the difference only to have the other person glaze over. If you are interested, it might be best to begin by listening to some of the old timers like Stan Jones or enjoy the music of Ian Tyson to understand what this means.

Western music was influenced by the folk music traditions of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland and cowboy songs sung around campfires in the 19th century such as Streets of Laredo. Otto Gray, an early Cowboy singer, felt that authentic western music had only three rhythms each derived from the gaits of the cow pony: walk, jog, and lope.

As a cowboy singer, Joel Eliot came to perform several times for us and each time he revealed new Cowboy songs and poetry. Through Joel, we came to know the music of other beloved Cowboy singers like Ian Tyson, Rex Allen, Stan Jones, Tom Russell, Corb Lund, and Dave Stamey. We came to know beloved Cowboy poets like Baxter Black, Charles Badger Clark, and Waddie Mitchell to name only a very few. We have listened to sweet performances by Michael Moon, Ben Alexander, and Gary McMahan at ranches in Colorado.

This past week we traveled back to Wickenburg, Arizona to hear Dave Stamey perform to a packed house at the impressive Desert Caballeros Western Museum. Dave is a favorite of ours (the museum too) and while there we delighted in reconnecting with Joel Eliot who was serendipitously in attendance that evening. Many of the beloved songs by Dave Stamey speak to his growing up on the family ranch in Montana most reflect his earlier lives as wrangler, dude string cowboy, and mule packer.

Dave performed songs both heartfelt and humorous for the faithful including Montana, a paean to his birthplace and growing up on a cattle ranch in Yellowstone County near Billings including his new 40 below, and The Truck Song about the challenges of life in Montana; a new song Too Many Crows, the humorous Fishin’ for Chicken, expressed thankfulness for one’s dog in Good Dog; sweet Sharon Littlehawk (a remembrance of a Native American girl from his childhood); and The Vaquero Song—perhaps becoming Dave’s most well-known song and a nostalgic look back at the rancho era of the 1840s when vaqueros and cowboys rode the range.

todavía estoy aquí I am still herе
todavía estoy aquí my soul is dancing in the moonlight
I mingle with each grain of sand in the land that is my birthright

Dave paid tribute to Stan Jones’ Cowpoke song written in 1951, the kind of songs from the TV western era that we grew up with back when we still thought places like Tombstone, Arizona were imaginary. Dave also performed sacred Cowboy music standards like El Paso written by Marty Robbins and Ghost Riders written by Stan Jones. He ended the evening with his inspiring Come Ride with Me (Susan’s favorite Dave Stamey song) followed by an encore of Night Riders Lament written by Jerry Jeff Walker.

Ah but they’ve never seen the Northern Lights
They’ve never seen a hawk on the wing
They’ve never spent spring on the Great Divide
And they’ve never heard ole’ camp cookie sing

Thanks to Dave Stamey and others, we have come to know there is magic in the air when you combine authentic Cowboy music performed live on a beautiful evening while singing along–especially around a campfire out west. It was magic that evening at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg.

Todavia estoy a qui.

by Brooks Bradbury / March 2024 BrooksLooks
brooks.bradbury@gmail.com