DALEY NEWS

May, 2008

For a cowboy poet, every month is poetry month, but for the world at large, that honour goes to the month of April. Bravo and thanks to the wonderful students and staff at Carson City Middle School in Nevada and in Alberta--Heritage Heights, Millarville, Cayley, Turner Valley and High River for inviting me to be their poetry cheerleader this year.

Two trips to California coming up soon. The first on Mother's Day, where I'll be promoting the wonderful province of Alberta (Heart of the New West) at The Grove shopping mall in Los Angeles. This is a quick trip, with four shows scheduled for Sunday, May 11.

In June, I am thrilled, excited, eager, delighted (go to thesaurus for more adjectives) to be appearing in a three-date concert series with two of the west's best contemporary cowgirl singers, and two of my favourite people, on stage and off, in the world of cowboy entertainment. Joni Harms (www.joniharms.com) and Eli Barsi (www.elibarsi.com) are both just wrapping up tours in France (Joni) and Canada (Eli) and we all three will rendezvous in California June 13, 14, and 15. First gig is at Mavericks Coffee House in Visalia on June 13. Then to Scofield's Cowboy Campfire in Fiddletown on June 14. And finally to the super charming venue at 143 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley. More details posted on my Calendar page.  Look out, Northern California: The Saddle Babes are coming!

Signing off with glimpses of green grass and crocuses and robins out my window. All the snow is melted except for a few patches on the north side of the shed. We've had four days in a row of plus temperatures. In the immortal words of great cowgirl singer Etta James: At Last!!!

Many happy springtime trails to alll, Doris

January, 2008

Arvada, Colorado: doesn't get any better. Peerless fans, wonderful sound and stage, best volunteers, a Rocky Mountain High from start to finish. A high water mark in my career: an impartial jury of two self-appointed experts awarded me Best Posture Award.

Western Horseman (January 2008): that's me in the story about wildrags.

Nevada Magazine (January-February 2008): that's me keeping dandy company in the story about (choose one):

• Beyonce and Beyond at the Mandalay
• Las Vegas: Not just Feathers and Sequins
• Elvis was a Cowboy at Heart
• A Memorable Night down at Mona's
• Elko: The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering

House Concert: the first in our new shed was a winner. Special guest Tom Cole from Fort Saint John, with guest appearances by Dave Wilkie, Denise Withnell, Ray Doyle (Wylie and the Wild West) and Brenna Daley. Please email me if you would like to be on the list for the next one.

New poems being whipped into shape for Elko: Rancho Tarbucks; Average Girl; Will James and other Canadian Content.

All things wild and wonderful, serendipidous and sparkly, jazzed up and pared down: that's what I wish for your trails in 2008. Drop me an email sometime,

Doris

p.s. the green paint in the bathroom turned out great

October, 2007

In this world of miseries, we should all repair to Fort Saint John, BC as often as possible (maybe not in January) for a taste of how the world once was and how it should be. Thank you Brian and JoAnn, Tom and Margie, Fred and Tammy, Clint, Kent, Richelle, Drid, the Grand Northern Hotel, Charlie Lake Church, and many others for your wonderful hospitality at the third annual Cowboy Concert. Just when I thought life couldn't get any better, the hospitality any sweeter, the volunteers any nicer or the crowds more enthusiastic...the cry went out that we were rounding up boats on Saturday and going for a cruise and picnic on the Peace River. Oh Canada, our home and native land.

House Concert: Please call me, 933-4434, if you would like to come to our first house concert in our new big shed in Turner Valley. Date: Saturday, Nov. 24. Guest performer: Tom Cole (a wonderful cowboy/country singer-songwriter from Fort Saint John...you won't want to miss him.) We can accommodate about 40-50 friends (we don't have that many friends, so if you come, please bring your in-laws, neighbours, parole officer, taxidermist, and/or gourmet club.)

Yours with green fingernails (I'm painting the upstairs bathroom), Doris

September, 2007

Here's news: we've moved. I am writing this from the bottom of a cardboard box, surrounded by the last of the miscellaneous stuff: Comet, Easter fluff, dictionaries, extension cords, dog biscuits, orange hunting vests and a china tea pot. After four wonderful years in the little farm house (renting) we are now living in our own house in Turner Valley, about 30 miles southwest of Calgary and what surely must be the most picturesque corner of the province.

So there went my summer plans for writing, writing and more writing, however I do have three or four new poems under construction and almost memorized. I will crack them out this weekend, far from home in Fort St. John, BC.

A highlight of the summer was the Anchor D Ladies Retreat, riding for three days in the Rockies with a great group of gals. The "support staff" outnumbered the paying guests by a significant margin, but that's how the math works when you bring along a poet, a singer, a massage therapist, several cook's assistants, three wranglers and a manicurist (just kidding about the last one). Kudos to our wonderful cook: the kind of gal who gets up to shoot at a grizzly bear and then puts the coffee on. Ladies...if you want a horseback wilderness trip of a lifetime, check out www.anchord.com for next year's ride.

Bob: fishing

Dog: sniffing

Boxes: multiplying

Sun: shining

Sky: as blue as the Ikea logo

Coffee: dripping

Life: dandy

Make a note of our new phone number (933-4434). Mailing address remains the same until our name moves up on the Turner Valley waiting list.

So long from the blue house at the end of the lane near Sheep Creek. Doris

June, 2007

On Life's Ladder of Happiness, I may have just hit the top rung. Thank you to the wonderful folks in Reno, Nevada for inviting me to be the headliner poet at this year's Rhythm and Rawhide gala with the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra. I shared the stage with the dynamic, versatile, cute, incredibly talented Quebe (rhymes with maybe) Sisters from Texas, and of course with the orchestra and world renowned conductor Barry Jekowsky. And to all of you I met in Reno who said, "See you next year in Elko," the answer is now officially "Yes!" I got the call in late May that I am indeed invited and on the roster for the big National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada in January.

Calgary area folks, I have a public concert coming up: come one, come all and bring your friends and neighbours. All of my recent Canadian gigs have been private affairs and corporate functions. So to all of you who have asked, "when's your next Canadian concert?" the answer is on Sunday, July 8 with Eli Barsi, my cowgirl singer/songwriter friend from Branson, Missouri. Go to the website calendar for all the details.

Our little valley is as green as guacamole. Fishing season has started, my flower garden (six daisies, three pansies, some osteospermum and a bunch of green stuff)

is looking dandy, and I'm going to spend the summer writing. Best from the little farm house on the banks of the Bow,  Doris

March, 2007

In 24 hours I've gone from sipping ice tea under the magnolia trees of Georgia to shovelling six inches of new wet snow to get to the woodpile. The only consolation is knowing that when July comes and we're enjoying pleasant summer days and cool mountain nights, the Georgia folks will be sweltering in the humidity. But enough about the weather!

It's been a great run of festivals: Elko, Spirit of the West (Ellensburg, Washington), the Texas Cowboy Gathering in Alpine and just now, the Southeastern Cowboy Festival in Cartersville, Georgia, where their motto is: Enjoy the West without ever leaving the South!  Attention art lovers: The Booth Western Art Museum is a destination calibre museum...you owe it to yourself to visit. Even though I did my best to leave the school kids with a great cowboy poetry experience, I think I will forever be remembered not as the cowboy poet who visited from Canada, but as "the lady who never ate grits before."

Special thanks and greetings to old and new friends I met along the trail in Ellensburg, Alpine and Elko. You're the best--thanks for your nice notes and emails.

Hope to see many of you in Reno, Santa Clarita, Victoria and Ontario. Write on, keep it western, and watch for the rhymes along the trail. Doris

p.s. The biggest cowboy poetry festival in the world is ongoing right now in cyberspace. For more info on cowboy poetry in general, and to find out about the gathering nearest you. visit www.cowboypoetry.com.

January, 2007

Liz, Marianne and Becky really know how to throw a great festival. On Life's Ladder of Happiness, the Colorado Cowboy Festival is on the top rung, and one of many, many highlights this year for me was John Toedtli's birthday party. Thank you Ken and Joan for tracking me down for that one. Thank you also to the great team of volunteers who do any number of duties to make it all work.

If you're coming to Elko next week, be sure to say hello. I'm on the Thursday night show with the amazing Skip Gorman in the Three Bar Theatre; also various daytime sessions at the Convention Centre.

Have ruled out "money counter" as a possible career choice after working two nights this weekend at a Calgary casino for Pheasants Forever. Somehow, PF benefits (I have yet to figure it all out) by volunteering in the counting room. My job was to flip the Queen's head up and sort money as fast as I could into piles so the machines could count it; working at a furious pace, it took till 3 a.m. to count it all. The plus side is that there is very little traffic on the road home at 3:30 in the morning.

Best from the banks of the Bow; don't gamble unless it's to come to Elko or Ellensburg or Alpine or Georgia and then I guarentee you'll be a winner. -Doris

December, 2006

Merry Christmas from the Alberta frontier. What a treat to see many of you in Utah in November and Monterey in December. I did my last Christmas gig yesterday morning at a breakfast for a wonderful group of Rotarians, and now it's Domestic Diva mode as I fly around the house to get ready for Christmas. Vaccum cleaner hose in one hand, scotch tape in the other, mix master hasn't been off in 24 hours, our family motto is: "Let's keep one vehicle on the road at all times." In January I head to Winnipeg for a day, then to Colorado, then Ellensburg, Alpine, Elko, Georgia, and several others.

Cowboy poetry and the people I meet are the gift that I unwrap and delight in every day of the year. Follow the star. Bake with butter. Stay outta the wire. Sing along with the choir (that rhyme was unintentional). Get out the good dishes. Keep a flashlight and a chocolate bar in the cubby hole of your vehicle. Ride tall. Wash your neck. Keep a journal. Eat your vegetables. Get lots of sleep. Learn the constellations. Save your money. Take lots of pictures. Bring home the bacon. Wear good socks. Floss. Take chances. Don’t take chances. Be thankful for stuff. Read a good book. Learn a new word.

Fa la la la la and warm Christmas wishes from Bob and me, near the banks of the Bow River. -Doris

October, 2006

Greetings and salutations on a snowy fall day from the hinterland:

A good day to watch the snow fall, build a fire, and catch up on poetry goings-on with all you good folks. Sincere thanks to the cheerful and generous-hearted folks at the Calgary Learning Centre for inviting me to be the 2006 Poet Laureate (Lariat?) at the recent Peter Gzowski Invitational Golf Tournament. American friends (with the exception of DW, who pulls in CBC from Regina): Peter Gzowski (a very hard name to rhyme, by the way) is/was a household name in Canada, especially among CBC listerners. For years he was the beloved voice and host of morning radio from coast to coast to coast. His cause was literacy. My job at the Calgary PGI was to attend the golf tournament and write a poem to present at the end of the day. I had a fabulous entourage of one (one more than any entourage I've ever had) who drove me around the course, explaining the difference between a wedge and a chip, and most importantly, pointing out where the mini-burgers and the rum crepes were being offered. Then it was off to the club house with my rhyming dictionary and Golfing For Dummies library book to write the poem. I include it below, minus the in-jokes that poked fun at various celebrities and which will mean nothing if you weren't there. The CBC is in my DNA and it was a very proud Canadian moment to be part of the tournament for such a great cause.

Congrats and thanks go, too, to the Wolking family (Sons and Brothers) who host theWestcliffe Wet Mountain Days festival in Colorado. The highest and prettiest festival in the west, and one of the best. Two churches, a good bar, and great music: what more do you need for the perfect western town. Thanks, Bill, for the maple leaf cookie!

We are in post-Thanksgiving mode here in Canada; I am thankful for each one of you who keep it western and keep the words spinning.

-Doris

Poem for the PGI Invitational Tournament

They're wild and wooly and full of fleas

Never been curried beneath the knees.

They're cowboy true, they're cowboy tough

There's more to this outfit than powder and puff.

Their focus: intense. Their stance is king,

But you ain't got a thing if you ain't got that swing.

Finesse? Decorum? That's all applesauce-ski

It's the fabulous golfers on Team Peter Gzowski!

Full of grit and good will, full of blarney and beans

They chipped and they sliced on the Willow Park Greens

When this crowd starts rocking and letting 'er rip

It's with a Ping G2 cavity-backed, titanium-shafted, pitching wedge 5-iron with all-rubber grip!

They're at home on the range (the driving range that is)

Literacy's their cause; raising money's their biz.

They're a swinging, putting, reading and writing fund-raising machine,

All it takes is panache and a little rub of the green.

Golfing is tough. Illiteracy is tougher.

So here's to each slicer and chipper and duffer.

Here's to literacy, Peter, my beloved CBC

Here's to raising the bar from sea to sea to sea.

Here's to warriors and poets and cowboys and kings

Here's to bunkers and backspins and blasphemous swings.

Ride tall in the saddle, stay outta the sand,

Swing on for the cause; blast on for the brand.

Wiggle you waggle and as you ride down the trail,

Ride tall, ride true, and try to stay outta jail!

July 28, 2006

Hiya friends, fans, relatives, desperados, others...

Warm summer greetings from the banks of the Bow River. I'm back home from the Smithsonian...the festival of a lifetime. Congrats to the Smithsonian staff and volunteers who pulled it off despite record-breaking flood waters lapping at/over/through/around tree trunks, tent poles, electrical outlets, sound systems, stage sets and all manner of perilous obstacles just days before we descended on America's front yard--the Mall that runs from the Capitol Building to the Washington Monument. Snapshot memories: singing Stompin Tom's The Hockey Song with Corb Lund and Tim Hus in 90 degree weather; saskatoon pie bake-off in the Foodways Tent; waltzing in the Jubilee Tent to a Calvin Volrath fiddle tune; pancake breakfast on July 1 at the Canadian Embassy; figuring out the Metro system; breakfast every morning with a view of the Potomac River; meeting so many curious, happy, outgoing, generous-hearted Americans (about a million of them); Hal Eagletail's Tsu'u Tina victory cry (Bingo!); lunch at Union Station (it's a train station, for heaven's sake...but so grand that they hold inaugurgal balls here); hanging out with the Biggs girls (ranch family from Hanna).

So now I'm home, running herd on the domestic front while Bob is on the river. Upcoming gigs include the Stony Plain Cowboy Festival (just west of Edmonton) where I'm on deck to host the tall tales contest and also present my little writing workshop.

Check in to the Daley News from time to time; I'll update you as interesting details unfold and if nothing interesting happens I'll just make something up.

Ride tall, be brave, eat beef, do your best rain dance, learn to yodel, scrub your neck, stay outta the wire, and shoot for the moon (just don't shoot at poets).

Cheers, Doris

“I haven't laughed so hard in a long time nor felt so marvelously entertained."

J. Perdomo, Big Hill Quilters

For bookings:

Doris Daley
(403) 933-4434
(403) 933-4454

ddaley@telusplanet.net

Mailing address:
Box 103
Turner Valley, AB  TOL 2AO