Oregon Public Broadcasting

This weekend cowboys and girls gathered in Kennewick, Washington to bust out some poems, yodels and songs.

It’s the 6th annual Columbia River Cowboy Gathering. With his brimmed hat pulled low, cowboy singer Wylie Gustafson  showed off the unique talent that’s made him famous.

Wylie Gustafson: “Yahoooooooooo”

Gastafson lives in Dusty, Washington and has been singing and picking across the nation for decades. He says nowadays his old-time cowboy music is more popular than ever thanks to modern tools like I-tunes and Facebook.

Wylie Gustafson:  “We used to be hard to find, this real niche music. You had to search for it to find it. Now it’s right there on the internet. If that is the music that you like, there is lots of stuff on the internet that you can eat up.”

The Columbia River gathering is one of many cowboy events that happen across the country.

Some of the better known ones are in Ellensburg, Washington, Elko, Nevada and Santa Clarita, California.

Online:

Columbia River Cowboy Gathering

http://www.ellensburgcowboygathering.com/

http://www.cowboyfestival.org/

http://www.westernfolklife.org/