James Rice
James Rice is the multi-talented author and illustrator of a series of extremely popular children's books. His 30 titles include Gaston Goes to Texas, Cowboy Christmas, Texas Night Before Christmas, Texas Honky Tonk Music, Cowboy Alphabet, Cowboy Rodeo, Texas Alphabet, Christmas on the J-O, Texas Jack at the Alamo, and Why Cowboys Sleep With their Boots On.
Dusty Richards
Dusty Richards was born in Chicago, Ill. in 1937. His family moved to Arizona in 1948. He graduated from North Phoenix High School and in 1960 received a degree in agriculture from Arizona State University.
Dusty Richards and two partners moved to Arkansas in 1960 and bought an 800 acre ranch. When they sold the ranch, he went to work for Tyson Foods in Springdale, Arkansas. He retired from that job in the early 1990's. For years, Richards conducted a live radio farm report from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. each weekday morning on KFAY-AM, a 10,000 watt radio station in Fayetteville. He also announces numerous rodeos and conducts about 25 auctions each year.
Dusty Richards is the author of four western novels published by International University Press: Two Trails to Rosas (1984), Bountyman and Doe (1985), Winter Camp Kid and Will, and Marshall Lockhart and the Tomboy (1984). He is also the author of From Hell to Breakfast (NY: Pocket Books, 1994), and By the Cut of Your Clothes (NY: Pocket Books, 1995).
In 2003, his book, THE NATURAL, received best book of fiction award at the 2003 Oklahoma Writers' Federation Inc and second place for best book award by the Missouri Writers' Guild.
Dusty Richards was selected as the 2003 Honorary Life Member of Oklahoma Writers' Federation in recognition of his support of OWFI and advancement of fellow writers.
Cena Golder Richeson
Cena Golder Richeson writes for True West, Arizona,Victor Valley Magazine, Horse Illustrated, True Confessions, Campus Life, California Highway Patrolman, Writer's Digest Forum, Political Woman, National Tombstone Epitaph, and other magazines.
Cena ("see-na") is the author of Love is Where You Find It (Fawcett; translated and published in Germany as To Be In Love With a Cowboy), under the pseudonym Cindi Richards; For Love's Sake (Hale, London), under the pseudonym Velma Chamberlain; Go For Broke (Fawcett Junipher, 1988), under the name of Cyndi Richards; and Honorable Intentions (Zondervan).
Cena Golder Richeson is the wife of a former RCA bull riding/bulldogging rodeo cowboy.
Roe Richmond
(Deceased)
Before becoming a full-time writer, Richmond had been a hotel clerk, a supervisor with the Federal Writers Project, a laborer, ranch hand, machine-tool inspector and proofreader.
Roe Richmond was one of the 24 writers who founded the Western Writers of America. Until 1949, all of his publications had been short stories for magazines ranging from literary to the pulps. Then his first book was published in 1949. And during the next 10 years or so he had 15 novels published, including The Deputy (1960).
However, in 1959 the bottom dropped out of the book market, just as it had a few years earlier for the magazine market. And Richmond was forced to go back to a non-writing job, editing and proofreading books at a printing plant. He had no time or energy left for writing, so he dropped out of WWA and did nothing for a dozen years.
He retired in 1972 at the age of 62 and resumed writing. And he sold nothing, absolutely nothing, for the next six years. Then his break came in 1978 and in three years he had ten books published (8 of them Westerns). And he wrote, "The deepest pleasure of all comes in the writing, the hard grinding work, I believe. You're never really satisfied with the end result, the final product, but sometimes you come close, almost reach what you strove for. The people and places and weather, the dialogue, action and situations come alive, solid, sharp and true. Nothing feels better than that."(See his photo in the Dec., 1954 issue of The Roundup.)
Shelly Ann Ricter
Shelly Ann Ricter, author and cowboy poet, was reared on a farm in Greensburg, PA., where there were always plenty of horses and a lot of stalls to clean. She has see her work published in such diverse areas as screenplays, poetry books, short stories, and young adult novels.
Shelly Ann Ricter lives in Oklahoma City.
Riders in the Sky
This group of western song stylists for many years consisted only of "Ranger Doug" Green on guitar, "Woody Paul" Chrisman on fiddle, and "Too Slim" Fred Labour on bunkhouse bass. In recent years they have been assisted by "Joey the Cowpolka king" Misklukin on the accordion.
Riders In the Sky have over 3,500 appearances to their credit, and the count continues with over 200 dates scheduled each year. They always put on a great family-oriented show.
Ranger Doug As a boy, visions of horses, hats and the lonesome trail come to life for Ranger Doug after seeing The Wagonmasters live in 1955 against the surreal setting of Knots Berry Farm in Southern California.
And as he grew, so did those dreams of cowboys and the beautiful music they made. "I listened to a lot of different music growing up, but the first record I can remember ever hearing is 'Cool Water,'" Doug says. "It struck me so. The memory of myself sitting at the record console is still vivid to this day. The image is so clear -- there's the old burro, the old miner crawling toward the mirage. I like to think that I am both literary and musical at times, and that song really touched both of those sensibilities." Doug began to explore all music. He was taken by the harmonies of the Everly Brothers and other popular performers of his youth, but eventually became focused on other authentic forms of American music.
"I became really interested in bluegrass music in college, and ultimately I went to Vanderbilt just to be in Nashville, and I even became a member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in 1967 and 1969. My first trip to Nashville had been to play with them in 1967, and though it was only for six weeks, it ruined me for life. Hey, seventeen bucks a day -- I don't care -- I loved it!" His love for Western music continued to grow as well, and by the early '70s he had become reacquainted with the music and poetry of the American cowboy, the music of his youth.
Doublas B. Green spent the last 20 years with "Riders In The Sky," recording 18 albums. He himself received the Western Heritage's Wrangler Award twice for his songwriting excellence. He is a respected member of the Western Music Hall of Fame. With degrees in English from the University of Michigan and Vanderbilt University, he has also served as a country music historian for the Country Music Foundation.
"Ranger Doug" Green recently released his first debut recording, "Songs Of The Sage". That CD contains 12 of his own compositions that prove to be potent testimony to the spirit of the American cowboy.
"I don't write that many songs in a year -- just a few -- but if you only record two or three a year, then you wind up with a collection of songs that need to be recorded," Doug says. "This album gave me the opportunity to do that."
"I have seen such a change in Western music since 1977 when we began," Ranger Doug says. "The music was almost forgotten. Now there are cowboy poetry gatherings all over the country, a number of music festivals -- it has really become vibrant again.... People still want to believe in the West and that cowboy image. As a writer, I want to give something in return to the tradition I've gotten so much from. I want to preserve the romance of the West and communicate the power and possibility that the life of the cowboy gives to the world."
Fred Labour Fred "Too Slim" Labour sings lead and harmony, and plays the bass fiddle. As the comic lead in the crew, he's the sharpest wit in the West, and he's penned the scripts for many of the Riders' comedy acts. Too Slim was working with the Dicky Lee road band way back in '77 when a call from Ranger Doug moved him to pursue an uncertain future in the world of Cowboy music. He holds a degree in wildlife management.
Woody Paul Chrisman "Woody Paul" Chrisman is billed as "King of the Cowboy Fiddlers," but he also sings lead and tenor. The Riders' instrumentation centers around Woody's superb fiddle playing. From Tennessee roots in a musical family, Woody spent his teen years hanging out with the likes of country music pioneers the McGees and Roy Acuff. Each Rider has written original music for the group, and Woody's compositions span the gamut of the Riders' original lineup, including songs in the tradition of the Old West, instrumentals, cowboy ballads and love songs. Woody's also a talented trick roper.
CLICK HERE to go to the official Riders in the Sky Web Site.
Riders of the Purple Sage
This was a photo that appeared on the opening page of www.ridersofthepurplesage.com when Buck Page was alive and performing with them.
Buck Page (seated, above) was the leader and founding member of the Riders of the Purple Sage. He was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania on June 18, 1922. He started in radio at age 11. And in 1936, at the ripe old age of 13, he formed the band still known today as Riders of the Purple Sage.* Buck was a rancher most of his life, raising, riding, and racing horses; all the while playing and writing some great western songs about cowboy life.
*See below for a different view of the history of the Riders of the Purple Sage.
As an actor and musician he has appeared in over 200 movies including: The Glenn Miller Story, A Star is Born, and Spartacus. Buck Page played lead guitar on the theme songs for TV shows Bonanza and 77 Sunset Strip. He served on staff at all three major networks and graduated from the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music.
Gary Bright, owner of The Source Entertainment Group, posted this notice on a web page featuring Buck Page and the Riders of the Purple Sage: "Foy Willing's Riders of the Purple Sage were active and enjoyed [success] from 1943 -1952. During this time period, Buck Page was not a part of Foy's 'Riders'. We recognize and thank Foy and his 'Riders of the Purple Sage' for there [sic] many contributions to Western Music. Buck started the 'Riders of the Purple Sage' in 1936 and was active on Coast to Coast radio and extensive touring through 1942 when he and the other members joined the armed forces to serve our Country. Buck continued on with his Riders only after Foy disbanded in 1952."
[NOTE: Sharon Willing, Foy's third wife and the author of a biography about him, says that her husband never even knew Buck Page, despite Buck having told people that Foy gave him the right to the use of "Riders of the Purple Sage" name on a handshake in 1961. She says, in an email to me on Feb. 16, 2007, that Buck "picked up the Riders' name after Foy died [in 1978], not after they (temporarily) 'folded' in '52." Reades should turn to the listing for Foy Willing for a different view of the history of the "Riders of the Purple Sage"]
Buck Page died of natural causes in his apartment at the Senior Artists Colony in Burbank, California on Aug. 21, 2006.
In his obituary, written by Dennis McLellan , it says: "Page served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. During the war another western band using the name Riders of the Purple Sage was organized in California by singer Foy Willing. Page moved to the West Coast in the 1950s. He and Willing eventually met and the two men formed a lifelong friendship. ("Buck Page, 84; Singer Founded the Original Riders of the Purple Sage", Los Angeles Times, Sept. 2, 2006 )"
As someone else faced with conflicting claims once said, "Pay your money and take your choice."
CLICK HERE to go to the official web page of The Riders of the Purple Sage, as that group exists today.
This listing is far from complete and may contain errors.
Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or their agents
are requested to submit recommended changes by
contacting Stan Paregien through his e-mail address.
Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
--- Bible: Psalm 96:2-3
© 2007 by Stan Paregien, Sr.