ASHEPHERD IN COW COUNTRY
30 April 1999
ASHEPHERD IN COW COUNTRY
SINGING shepherd Graham Dick, 40, is back in Northumberland after starring as a guest artist at the 15th Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. This is an annual cultural celebration of poetry and music which developed from the cowboys, drovers and graziers who pioneered the West.
As a noted local performer of unaccompanied traditional ballads, Graham who works at Thockrington Farm, Colwell, Northumberland, was selected to make the longest journey of his life with Northumbrian poet Allan Wood and singer Tam Reid, from Aberdeen.
Fogbound flights led to Graham starting out from Newcastle Airport then journeying to Kings Cross, and the Underground to Heathrow. Three "firsts" in one night.
"We had a good flight to Chicago – it was very smooth," he said as he described his introductory flight. The flight from Salt Lake City to Elko was a little different. "In a 25-seater plane, we hit a snowstorm and Allan christened our plane the little thistle cutter as it weaved and wobbled all over the place. We landed sideways too." This outward journey lasted a gruelling 30 hours.
The entire state of Nevada is a Mecca for gambling and Graham was amazed by the very cheap meals on offer – the low prices guaranteed to pull in the potential punters.
"Breakfast was good, bacon, sausage, and hash browns followed by Danish Pastries all for $2.50," said Graham, and he continued "You could go out at six in the morning for breakfast and customers would be pulling non-stop at the one armed bandits – some of them could have been there all night."
"It was tremendous to see, but what amazed me was how did they ever get time to clean these shining machines as they are in use 24 hours a day."
His four days of performances, including one broadcast on the Internet began with the rural schools programme. One little girl told her father, a local store owner, that she had seen people from foreign lands and another asked Graham whether there were wild animals in Northumberland.
The huge $3,000,000 boost to Elkos economy during the Gathering is shared by the restaurants, casinos, motels and stores, ensuring the survival of the small Western town. The townspeople are excellent hosts. Graham visited two ranches, and the National Park including the Humboldt River and the Roby Mountains.
At the "71" Ranch, one of Nevadas largest, at 50 miles wide, Graham saw this inscription: "The finest ingredient a rancher can put upon the land –
The footprint of its owner and a kind and loving hand."
As it is here, rural life in America is also under threat. "Prices have dropped dramatically over there in the last 12 months as well," said Graham, and he does not intend to emigrate and become a cowboy. "It is only a life for a single man. The cowboys travel around in the summer moving stock . No arrangements are made for housing apart from a single bunk in the bunkhouse, and thats no good for family life."
"Id go back if I was asked, the people are tremendous, especially the locals. It is not put on because we are foreigners – they are just like that all the time," said Graham whose cassette of traditional songs of Northumberland and Border Ballads Yon canny Shepherd Laddie, has just been released. (Details: 01434-67995).
Sarah Walton