Darrell Holden | Cowboy Wisdom from the Ranch to the Mic and Beyond

Darrell Holden is a respected voice in the world of cowboy poetry and Western heritage entertainment, known for blending humor, heartfelt storytelling, and authentic ranch-life experiences into performances that connect deeply with audiences across the American West. A gifted stage performer and speaker, Holden has become a recognizable figure at rodeos, cowboy gatherings, Western festivals, and heritage events where preserving the traditions of cowboy culture remains front and center.

Drawing inspiration from real-life experiences, rural values, and the spirit of the working cowboy, Darrell’s poetry captures both the grit and humor of life on the range. His performances often mix traditional cowboy poetry with storytelling and crowd interaction, making him a favorite among Western lifestyle audiences.

Over the years, Holden has earned recognition within cowboy poetry and Western entertainment circles for his engaging live presentations and dedication to preserving cowboy culture through spoken word performance. He has appeared at numerous regional Western events and cowboy gatherings, sharing the stage with respected poets, musicians, and storytellers from across the country.

Known for his commanding stage presence, signature cowboy hat, and unmistakable delivery style, Darrell Holden continues to celebrate the traditions, values, and humor of the American cowboy lifestyle while introducing new audiences to the art of cowboy poetry. His appearance on the Musical Miles Podcast offers listeners a deeper look into the stories, inspiration, and passion behind one of the West’s enduring art forms.

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🎵 In This Episode:
• Darrell Holden interview
• Cowboy Poet
• Utah Rancher
• Cache Valley Cowboy Rendezvous
• Cowboy Culture

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey music lovers, welcome to Musical Miles Podcast. I'm your host, Byron Duffin, and I'm here with Daryl Holden.

unknown 0:06

Morning.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome. Morning.

unknown 0:08

Hey.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

We are in Logan, Utah at the Cowboy, excuse me, Cache Valley Cowboy Rendezvous. I guess remember to throw them all in there, so make sure we get it all in the right order. Um Daryl's performing here as a poet. This is a great event because uh it's got live music, it's got live poetry, um, there's shopping, there's all kinds of cool stuff, some great concerts. Last night we missed the dance. It was awesome. It was a great day. Was the dance great? Lots of people turned out was good. Oh, that's good. That's good. Well, this is a cool event. This is our first year to be here. Mine too. Um, we actually, I don't know whether we officially met, but we saw Daryl perform last year in Elko at the Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and uh was so impressed. And so started following you on social media, and so I love your your poems and your posts that you share. But we had a chance to hear a couple of your poems yesterday. Talk to us a little bit about your background because you live on a ranch, you run cattle out west of Salt Lake City.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Yeah, west and south. East easiest ways to explain it is east of Ely, Nevada on the desert. Um, little town called Vernon in Towilla County, and then we ranch back to the west, is where our ranch west and south. And so um spent my life on the desert. Started writing poetry in 1983, but I never did it to do this. Sure. I did it just as kind of a therapy, and uh I always thought maybe someday my grandkids would read a pick up and think it was a journal and be like, well, heck, this rhymes, you know. And I but I because I just kind of thought, well, you know, we all question ourselves, and I didn't I was kind of shy, didn't want to share it. I still am. But I uh you get married and your wife puts you in a headlock and says, maybe you ought to share this a little bit, and so you do. And so it's been a really wild ride to be able to get to come to places. The cool part though is when somebody, you know, I don't care about fame or fortune, which is handy because we're sure, you know, but it's really cool when a little old rancher will come up and he's wiping a tear out of his eye and he'll say something like, I had a horse just like that. Well, then I've done my job as a poet, you know. So pretty blessed.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Well, you do a great job of of uh bringing it to life, if you will. Thank you. Your poem about the spurs?

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Mm-hmm. Yeah, my grandmother was a huge influence in my life, and that's one of the other women that have been a wonderful influence to me, besides my wife, my mother, and my daughter. My grandma would always tell us um, you know, remote ranch, she homeschooled all her kids her daughters, um, and they were always at the top of the class. In those days, they had to go to town and and actually take tests to see where they were at, and they were always at the top of the class. And grandma never was happy to plateau with her with her knowledge, even into her 80s. She was always learning. She ordered um textbooks of geology. We have a lot of mining in our country, and geologists would come to the ranch to ask her questions because of her self-taught ability to be a geologist. And so she'd always kind of kick us in the butt and say, Don't ever quit learning. If you quit learning, you start forgetting. There's no plateauing. And so that's what's been fun about poetry is to, you know, get to honor her, tell these stories of people that I love that are gone, but also the stories of people today that are still trying to put food on people's plates.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Sure. Well, you know, it's it's interesting because uh, you know, you talk about ranching heritage in our families. You know, I come from a farming ranching family, uh, grew up on a potato farm in southeast Idaho. Um, both sides of the family, my my mom's parents both farmed, potato farmed, and as well as my dad, we ran sheep and cattle, got into the horse business later. I own my grandpa, my mom's dad's saddle. That's awesome. Um my my dad's saddle is somewhere. Miss Shandis from a ranching family in Arizona, uh that they're in uh uh up north of Holbrook and Sholow area. Um but uh so we, you know, our our roots run deep into AG and and uh and the ranching world, and so we appreciate those stories and those poems. Um uh who really influenced your your your poetry early on? You said you just started writing the poetry out, but was there somebody that really influenced you besides grandma?

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Absolutely. I was a freshman in high school at Towola High School in Utah, and uh my ag teacher had a guy come down from Utah State University here in Logan to teach us about horseshoeing. And uh Scott McKendrick was his name, and he spent a day in the classroom talking to us about horse and anaby and the angle of the bones and all that stuff. And the next day we went out and he started slapping shoes on horses. And he wasn't, you know, we're not pro-horse shoers, but he wanted us to understand a little teeny bit about it. Well, halfway through he started reciting a poem. Oh, wow. And I went, What wait a second, because I'd heard cowboy poetry, but it was all the cremation of Sam McGee and and the Sierra Peaks and all of those 1880 poems. I didn't know that in 1983 someone was writing poetry. Now, remember, this was before phones, and this was before Elko even started. And and Scott was the one of the first people in Elko to do his poetry. And I was enthralled. I'm like, I didn't my naive little self, like you can do that. Yeah, and so I went home that night and wrote a little silly, really crappy poem, and but the spark was there and it's just stayed with me. And like I say, I never planned to do this, but I always planned to write because it gave me that that outlet. When I was missing someone, I could write about them. Yeah, when I when I had to put a horse down, I could write about it. Sure. When I had a great experience, I could write about it. And over the years, that's where it's come from. So then, of course, Baxter and Waddy, and as the gathering got started, then you know it was just more fuel to the fire. And so um, just blessed to be able to follow in their footsteps.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Well, that's cool. Well, my my uh junior year in high school, my English teacher uh part of our requirement was to write a poem, and so I wrote it. My my one and only original cowboy poem. Miss Shanda found it, and it's actually framed in my office. That's awesome. And so I send it to me. I'd love to read it. Someday I might have to put some music to it because I'm a I want to be guitar player as well. So um, but uh this episode is brought to you by Tin Hall, Western style with an edge, bold design, fearless attitude, and boots that make a statement. Discounts available when you click our sponsor link at musical miles podcast.com. Uh and talk about Baxter. You know, we we had I had the pleasure of meeting Baxter in an airport years and years ago. And uh what man, I'm trying to remember what year it was. We were at the gathering in in Elko, and we were having dinner in Bill Toki's with another couple, and there were two other couples sitting next to us talking, and Baxter walked in the front door, and he waves at me, and I wave back, and he walked right up to the table and he says, Do you know these folks over here? And I said, Well, we've been visiting with them, they seem like nice folks. And he says, Well, only way this is gonna work is if we slide these two tables together. And he joined us for dinner for two hours and told us story after story and recited poems. And the one and only poem that I can really truly remember is The Flag. And I love that poem.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Yeah, he was a peach. I never got to the closest I got to meet him was I was in a poetry contest, uh, and I'm not a big fan of contests, but I was just starting out doing this, and I won second place. First place got to open for Baxter. Oh, wow. And it was a good thing that I didn't win because all hell broke loose on the ranch and we had to run home anyway, and I'd have missed it. But that was the closest I got. But I will say this I was I was hauling small bales in the field, and my daughter texted me and said, Baxter'd pass. And we knew that he'd been sick and stepped away from Western horsemen and stuff. I sat down on a hay be hay bale in that field and just cried because of the impact. He wrote about the truth. It could be so funny, and you could just you know lose your breath laughing. Oh, yeah. And then he could write about his dog and you just about cry. And he was just, but but it was all true. And that's the one thing that I took from him is don't write about stuff you don't know, write about what you do know.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Well, it'll come out. I mean, it shows in in your delivery and your ability to to I I truly believe that. If you it's the same in song, right? Um and we interview a lot of songwriters, and so we appreciate the truth and the story behind the song. So the story behind the poem actually comes out in the poem, and it comes out in the song as well, but you don't hear the whole story and the whole backstory. So I love your story about driving to work.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Go, yeah, to be the poem to be, yeah. Yeah, um, again, it's it's one of those things where we get 80 years if we're lucky, right? Yeah, right. And so I've just decided, and maybe it's because I'm 58 almost, and um I've just decided I'm gonna slow down and enjoy things. Yeah, because I might not be here tomorrow, you know. Heck, a meteor could hit me, just like the dinosaurs. I am I am taking the time to look around me. There's beauty everywhere, there are wonderful people everywhere. The noise that's on TV and our phones would convince us otherwise, but no, there's so much beauty in life, and uh, and that's just what I'm trying to trying to share. I hope if nothing else comes through in my poetry, it's gratitude. Sure. I get to do this. There are people in this world that will never throw their leg over a horse, and I don't know where I would be without the relationship I have with horses. Um, truly. I mean, I I feel sorry for the folks who don't have that relationship. And I, for some reason, have been blessed enough to have wonderful horses in my life since I was as my earliest memory.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Sure. So, you know Well, there's nothing like a good horse. I mean, you know, like like uh Will Rogers said, nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse. And and you know, I was fortunate. We we actually in our early married career, uh, married life, we uh I had a career as a horse trainer, and we we lived in Arizona and California and and uh and had the opportunity to work for some great trainers and ride some really, really nice horses. I rode cutters, and so I I got to meet a lot of cool people and ride some incredibly talented horses. You know, you hear people talk about you know the bloodlines in these horses now, and they they go back to well nobody ever talks about Doc Bar anymore, but I rode Colts out of own daughters of Doc Bar and sons and daughters of Mr. Sam Pepe and Little Peppy, you know.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

We had a great Doc Bar horse on the ranch. We called him Bar Ran, and oh my heck. The only he was an arena horse we bought later in life from my younger brother, and he could go track a cow straight, but if that cow turned, he just kept going straight. That was his only flaw. But oh, he was fast, he was a wonderful, beautiful horse, and you know, I can it's just a privilege. Again, it's it's a it's an interesting dynamic when you start to realize how blessed we are. Yeah, you know, why wasn't I born in Boston? Why wasn't I born in France? Why did my family come here from all those years ago from Holland and then not go to Oregon or California, stay on the West Desert of Utah? Yeah. And my roots are deep, and I'll probably end up in the dirt there someday, and I wouldn't have it any other way. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Our roots are similar. Like say, Miss Shandick, she came from from the white mounts of mountains of Arizona. Tell everybody she's 16 before they catch her and put shoes on her. So but uh my family came to Utah as well with the pioneers. Uh got sent south by Brigham to build the he my great-great-grandfather built the first road between St. George and Cedar. Wow. And and so that and then they and then they and then they came north and ended up in in Idaho, Southeast Idaho, and we've been there since 1916. And so um, but but you know, how why were we so lucky? You know, and how was I lucky enough to go to uh uh Rick's college and meet a beautiful girl from Arizona that was dumb enough to you married way above your pay grade? Way, way above it, and most people understand that when they first meet her.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

So I want to know where she tied her German shepherd up at. Why he didn't bite you or seen iDogs yet?

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Let me tell let me tell you a story real quick. So we're we're we'd been to a rodeo in Salmon, Idaho, and we were back. I checked into my room at Rick's College but had not moved in. And uh had no groceries, so we went to dinner. We'd been in a wreck on the way home from the rodeo, and so we went to dinner at this little local restaurant, and her mom and dad were there sitting in the booth across from us. And of course, we got on our spurs and our hats, and her mother says, Excuse me, I'm I don't mean to listen in, but you you've been talking about rodeo and rope. And my husband, we brought her daughter up here to school, and she my husband's really, really bored. Well, here comes this cute little blonde from the salad bar, and uh my mother-in-law looks at her and she goes, 'Well, this is our daughter, Shanda, and she lives at Sunrise Village Apartment 36. So I was her hand-picked son-in-law.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

So arranged dating marriage.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Arranged, arranged marriage right there at at uh Rick's college. That's pretty cool. But uh anyway, no, it's been it's been a lot of fun, and we've been really lucky and blessed. We've been together 44 years, be 44 years next month, and uh and we've met a lot of cool people, including you.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Well, that's the coolest part of this ride. I, you know, like I say, the all the other stuff's fluff, but the cool people get to be friends with Bren Hill or Kenny Hall or Caden Minor or Joel Nelson is pretty amazing. And I I spend a lot of time just sitting there going, I get to do this, you know. Pretty blessed.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Yeah, cool. Well, thanks for your time, man. This has been been a lot of fun. Have you got a really quick short poem you can share with us?

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Well, I can do the one I did yesterday about the stars. Uh everybody misses people we love, and especially me. And I got out on the desert one night and I just looked at the poem or the stars and and I wrote this poem, and it's called Firelight. When you're way out on the desert and the old sun is bedded down, and the stars just start to show themselves a long, long way from town. If you'll lay there by your campfire and watch how they sparkle, shine, and glow, to me they start to look like little campfires shining down to earth below. And it brings me a lot of comfort to picture those I'm lonesome for sitting by a little campfire. Almost brings us together once more. Them up there, me down here, separated just by space. I can almost hear their voices, and I can almost see their face smiling and free and happy up in that star-filled sky, each one by a little campfire. Easy to see if you'll try. Thank you, brother.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Thank you. For Musical Models Podcast, I'm your host, Myron Delphin, from the Cash Valley Cowboy Rendezvous.