Lonnie Shurtleff (La Grande) performs original and traditional cowboy poetry, music, and stories reflecting his life experiences ranching and running wild horses in the mountains and deserts of the northwest. His artistry blends literary cadence, oral melody, and western imagery into a compelling presentation.
Bio
Lonnie Shurtleff (La Grande) is a traditional cowboy poet, musician, and wordsmith. He grew up in the Owyhee Desert running wild horses and in Eastern Oregon’s Blue Mountains running cattle. His material is largely autobiographical and reflects his experiences growing up in the saddle and performing in cowboy hangouts around the Northwest. Shurtleff’s love of music came from his mother’s side of the family, mostly all piano, fiddle, and guitar players. After supper “we’d sit around and play music,” his mom on the piano, his dad sometimes picking up the banjo. Shurtleff says, “I still carry that [music] forward," with songs such as "Red Wing,” “Under the Double Eagle,” “Little Snow Deer,” as well as “pop stuff off the radio” and the western swing tunes Bob Wills popularized. Shurtleff’s family also had a literary flair. From his earliest childhood memories on his father’s lap listening to him recite Robert Service’s “The Shooting of Dan McGrew”, or his mother reading Alfred Noyes’ “The Highwayman” on winter evenings in the old ranch house, Lonnie has been enamored with the meaning and impact and beauty of words, and how they can be strung together to evoke images and emotions.
