Prescott Cowboy Minstrels Up For Awards

PRESCOTT - Yipee TiYay, Nevada Slim rides the range the modern cowboy way. With a two-ton truck, a cell phone and a bale of hay.

"Well you might say it's better this way. 'Cuz I ain't in the saddle both night and day. But with regulations and taxes right up to my ears, I got a hankerin', pard, for yesteryears."

Yesteryears and the old life of cowboys, pioneers, ranchers and early settlers hold a fascination Nevada Slim and his singing partner Cimarron Sue can't seem to shake. The Prescott residents, known at home as husband and wife pair Bruce and Susan Matley, are full-time musicians who play their traditional cowboy and western music and poetry for over 175 audiences each year.

This month, for the first time ever, the Matleys are finalists for several Western Music Association awards. Their album, "Westerners," has been nominated for three Top 5 awards in the categories of Traditional Western Album by a Group/Duo, Outstanding Entertainer-Duo and the Crescendo (Rising Star) Award.

Winners will be announced at the Western Music Association Awards Show in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Nov. 20.

"This is the first time we've been nominated for the Top 5, or final round," Bruce Matley said.

Slim and Sue were nominated six times in 2008 for Top 10 in various categories.

The duo will perform in New Mexico at the Showcase and Awards Show and is also slated to give a seminar on how to book poetry and singing gigs at county fairs.

Like the Matleys, the Western Music Association is focused on educating the public about western music and helping people, "understand and appreciate the contribution of western music to our culture."

Cowboy music is not country and western. As Slim likes to say, "You'll never hear about divorce, bar fights and cheatin'." Western cowboy music is gentler, more like folk music. It's about the work, the life, the history. Slim calls it, "organic cowboy songs" - a means for often illiterate men to pass on their heritage through song and poetry. "And it turns out, cattle love to be sung to," Slim said. With a number of original songs and the borrowing of others, Nevada Slim and Cimarron Sue have made educating folk about the cowboy and pioneer days their full-time job. In fact, the couple just returned home to Prescott this month after a full summer spent traveling and performing the county fair circuit.

Slim and Sue gave audi­ences a taste of cowboy heritage through songs and poetry at 12 fairs, present­ing

140 performances over 82 days. The county fair circuit is something they've been doing for the last seven or eight years, Slim said. Though they perform at con­ferences,

cowboy gatherings and some local venues, they consider the county fairs vital to their work - because that's where the kids are.

"The important thing about these fairs is reach­ing the youth," Sue said. "So many kids are confused about work ethics. It's im­portant

that they hear some of the music coming out of this heritage, this part of their history." And while the future of county fairs was tenuous just a few years ago, the reces­sion has kept more people close to home. Attendance at the Walla Walla County Fair, for example, was up from 82,000 people last year to 118,000 this year, Slim said.

The couple promotes cow­boy history in other ways, too. During cowboy poetry week each year, for example, they book presentations in rural, county libraries to teach kids, and adults, about the early western settlers. Bruce Matley, who grew up on a ranch in Nevada, writes songs from the farm and his own experiences. Susan Matley, who is also a published writer and poet, writes music from her ex­plorations and research into pioneer history. It was her husband who introduced Sue to cowboy music. The Prescott musicians released two albums this year - "Westerners," whose songs reflect Slim's personal cowboy heritage and Sue's research, and "Christmas Shoppin At The General Store," featuring a cover pho­to taken at Waitsburg Hard­ware and Mercantile with owner John Stellwagen and old-time holiday tunes.

Nevada Slim and Cimar­ron Sue will be playing at the Tuxedo in Prescott on Nov. 12 and at Waitsburg General Store's Annual Christmas Party, as always, on Dec. 11

They will also be in Day­ton on the last Saturday in November playing the lobby of the Weinhard Hotel as part of the city's Christmas festivities

Their website, http://www.ne­vadaslim. com, publishes the couple's schedule, and there you can also read their bios, check out photo albums and order their CDs.