APHC: Special Guests

Special Guests
Saturday, June 5, 1999

Stephanie Davis is a singer and a songwriter. She is also a fourth-generation Montanan who grew up in Bridger. She moved back to her small ranch in south central Montana last year after spending nine years in Nashville honing her craft. During that time, her songs were recorded by such artists as Garth Brooks, Roger Whittaker, Shelby Lynne, Martina McBride, Laurie Lewis, and Don Edwards. After deciding that she wasn't cut out to be a staff songwriter, churning out music on a deadline, she made her way back to Montana to write and sing her own songs. She has since released two CDs on her own Recluse label. The first is the western-styled River of No Return, which features cowboy ballads. The second, I'm Pullin' Through, is a collection of original and vintage '40s swing music. She enjoys performing at cowboy gatherings throughout the west, where she can enjoy the audience's reaction to her performance. It also gives her the opportunity to share the stage with the cowboy poets who have inspired her writing. Rich O'Brien, producer of her CDs, says of Davis, "It's one thing to write and perform Western songs. It's quite another to write and perform Western classics and live to see them acknowledged as such; that's exactly what Stephanie is doing." Joining Davis tonight are: Rick Philipp (drums), Harley Brendal (steel guitar), and Kelly Rubrecht (guitar).

After receiving his bachelor's degree in English and science, Wisconsin native Paul Zarzyski heeded Horace Greeley's advice to "go west young man" and earned his M.F.A. degree in creative writing from the University of Montana in the early '70s. At the same time, he took up a second, more lucrative, vocation-bareback bronc riding on the professional rodeo circuit. After more than twelve years of riding, his rodeo days are behind him and he makes his living through his poetry. Collections of his work include The Makeup of Ice (University of Georgia Press, 1984) and Blue Collar Light (Red Wing Press, 1998). All This Way for the Short Ride (Museum of New Mexico Press, 1996) was awarded The Western Heritage Award for Poetry from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. His poems have also appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including London's Independent, Delta Airlines' Sky Magazine, Northern Lights, and Big Sky Journal. More recently, he has been included in several anthologies, including Poetry of the American West (Columbia University Press), Maverick Western Verse (Peregrine-Smith), and Between Earth & Sky: Poets of the Cowboy West (W.W. Norton). A recording of sixteen of his poems, Words Growing Wild (JRP Records), was produced in 1998 and features musical accompaniment by Duane Eddy, John Hartford, Rich O'Brien, and others. The Great American History Theater of St. Paul, Minnesota, arranged some of his poetry into the second act of a two-act play called Small Town Triumphs & Cowboy Colors. Zarzyski has been a featured performer at the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering for the past dozen years and has recited at the Library of Congress. Since the early '80s, he has travelled throughout the U.S., as well as Australia and England, sharing his poetry through readings and workshops. Zarzyski now lives west of Great Falls, Montana.