Dave Anderson | Preserving the Cowboy Western Music & Poetry Heritage

Dave Anderson is a passionate advocate for Western heritage, cowboy culture, and traditional Western music, best known as the Founder and Event Director of the Cache Valley Cowboy Rendezvous. Through his leadership and vision, the Rendezvous has become one of the premier celebrations of cowboy poetry, Western storytelling, music, and ranching traditions in the Intermountain West.

A longtime supporter of the cowboy arts and Western way of life, Anderson created the Cache Valley Cowboy Rendezvous to preserve and promote authentic cowboy culture while providing a stage for musicians, poets, historians, storytellers, and performers who embody the spirit of the American West. Under his direction, the event has grown into a respected gathering that attracts audiences and performers from across the country.

Known for blending entertainment with education and heritage preservation, Dave has worked tirelessly to showcase traditional cowboy values through live performances, cultural demonstrations, and community engagement. His efforts have helped keep cowboy poetry and Western music alive for future generations while also supporting Western artists and rural traditions.

In addition to his role as an event director, Anderson is recognized throughout the Western community for his dedication to promoting family-friendly events centered around ranching heritage, cowboy ethics, and Western storytelling. His leadership has earned admiration from performers and attendees alike for creating an atmosphere that celebrates authenticity, tradition, and the enduring legacy of the cowboy lifestyle.

As a featured guest on the Musical Miles Podcast, Dave Anderson shares the inspiration behind the Cache Valley Cowboy Rendezvous, the importance of preserving Western culture, and the stories that continue to unite cowboy communities across the West.

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🎵 In This Episode:
• Dave Anderson interview
• Cowboy Western Music
• Utah Rancher
• Cache Valley Cowboy Rendezvous
• Cowboy Culture

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

In the early morning rain with a dollar in my hand and aching in my heart, my pocket full of sand. I'm a long way from home. I miss my loved one so in the early morning rain. No place to go.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Dave Anderson. Welcome to Musical Miles Podcast. Thank you. I'm Byron Duffin. It is a pleasure to meet you. Thanks for taking a minute to sit down with us. We're we we've we've established this with everybody, but we're gonna do it again for video sake. We are at the Cowboy Cash Cache Valley Cowboy Rendezvous.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

I've said it a hundred times and I keep screwing it up.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

So I've said it for 16 years.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Yeah, you've been involved in this still since the very beginning. Yes. Yeah. So and you live just over the hill, uh Harrisville.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

In Harrisville. It's a suburb of Ogden.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Ogden. Been there most of your life?

SPEAKER_01 1:13

No, I was raised in South Central Utah. That's where I was born. I moved into Salt Lake when I was about 10 years old. Okay. Lived there on a ranch for a long time. In South Central Utah or in the U.S. right in the middle of Salt Lake City. No kids.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Called the Fantasy Ranch. It was owned by James E. Hogel.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Okay, that owned the Hogel Zoo.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Yes. And we trained uh show horses and race horses. Quarter horses, all quarter horses.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Really?

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yeah. Traveled all over.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Really?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

In the show arena and on the racetrack.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

So you probably so what what kind of quarter horses? I mean, uh besides racehorses, you said performance horses, so cutting horses, uh. So you I spent a lot of years in the cutting horse world. Okay. And so did you did you happen to know um oh Shandah helped me out. I'm looking for uh oh my goodness. Well Doc. No, Brent well, Brent uh Hill. No, Brent not Brent Hill, but that's Brent Hill. Brent, oh my gosh, now see I haven't thought about those guys in a long time. No, who won't who did Greg Smith used to work for? Uh that had Doc's Marmoset and uh uh um I'm not familiar with that horse. You're not familiar with Doc's Marmoset.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

I'm sure it's probably a Doc Bar horse.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

She was an own daughter of Doc Bar, and she was raised by uh well Tommy Lyons trainer and um no sweetheart, uh um oh my gosh, Bob Minden Halls. No, no, you knew the Mendon Halls.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Bob Condy?

SPEAKER_02 2:52

Bob Condy, that's the guy who's gonna be. Oh my gosh. I I knew Bob, it's been so many years, but I rode cutters for several years.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Yeah, my dad, my dad was had some really good cutting horses. I was pretty young, but I uh did pretty well.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Won the Intermountain Raining Fraturity when I was 15 years old.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

And uh that was a good day.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Yeah, that was a good day. Well, we we've we've been entrenched in the raining horses and the cutting horses. Tim McQuay, Dale Hendrix are some big names in the Rainer world, but uh I spent some years in the rope business and so yeah, yeah, the horse deal and the and then race horses. My dad had uh an own son of three O's and he ran quarter horses and anyway. Um when did you get bit by the music bug girl?

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Um before I was born, my dad had his own dance band, Glenn Miller-esque, okay, in those days. Yeah, and uh so I I grew up with that music and then I started uh playing the clarinet when I was younger. I played in in uh marching bands and and orchestras when I was in junior high school and high school. Yeah. Yeah, I was a drummer in a rock and roll band for quite a while. But then here's the story you're not gonna believe. I was a jockey. Uh-huh. Yeah. I was really very small when I was uh I used to be a lot smaller too. Uh-huh. And uh I rode racehorses just for two years. I had to nearly kill myself to stay down.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Um, but uh when I went to the racetrack, I couldn't take my drums with me. No, they frown on that. I had my guitar player teach me three chords. I'm still trying to get it right. Yeah, I think you do pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

I I I I tell everybody if you can learn three chords, you can play hundreds of songs. And uh, but you know, you're you that's a story you you said you wouldn't believe. Well, here's a story you won't believe. I was calling the racehorses in Pocatello, Idaho, and Jerome this summer, this past year. Oh really? Yeah. I used to announce a bunch of rodeos and and I got conned into it. They said, Byron, would you come do this? And I said, I I don't really need to, I don't owe you any favors, and I really don't need the work. Um, I have a very busy schedule doing this podcast, but anyway, they talked me into doing how many meets did I do? Five? Five weekends.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

I I got a chance to announce team sorting. Okay. Have you ever oh yeah, I've been around it.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

I've never well I announced some ranch rodeo, so there's been team sorting in the ranch rodeo.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

We did uh I would have three pens going at the same time, and man, that's busy. That is really busy. 60 seconds per pen. Yeah. Yeah. 900 teams in a weekend.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Oh my gosh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

I got out of that as quick as I could.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

It's a it's like announcing team ropings for a truck ropin, right? You got a truck roping's got a thousand teams, and uh, you know, calling those teams and keeping them running. Because you need to run about a hundred and fifteen teams an hour to stay in the game, right? So yeah, it gets a little monotonous. But uh well, so so you've been in the game a long time, played music for a long, long time, but the guitar became your go-to or your go-to. 16 years old. And so that's been about 30 years, huh?

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Um yeah, at least that.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

Well, I said to Skip, I interviewed Skip Ewing the other night, and I said, now Skip, you you've been in this game a long time, like 40 years, and he goes, Well, not quite that long. And I'm like, Skip, I read your bio. I didn't want to call him out on it, but it said you went to Nashville in 84. That's but this is this is 26. That's that's 42. So your math's not mathing. But anyway, I didn't I didn't call him out on it. Well, I didn't want him to think he's because he's he's almost as old as I am, and he doesn't have a single gray whisker, so I think that's Grecian. Well, I have some. I got I got all I got all the gray hairs. So but uh so so the guitar became your love, and uh you played in in a lot of different bands over the years.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

I've mostly done I've only been in one band. Okay. Uh my daughter and I sing together, and we uh sang together and traveled together for a very long time. Okay. Then she decided to grow up. They do that. Our daughters do that. She wanted to become an adult, get a full-time job, you know, that sort of thing. Married, she has a baby. Um, and that kind of made me a solo act again. Yeah, yeah. So that's what we do.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Well, but you sing together on Christmas, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Well, we're gonna sing together this afternoon. Oh, are you? Yeah, she's here with.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

So you're opening for Brand? No, no, you're gonna be on the other stage.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

On the other stage, I'm gonna be on with Thatch. You interviewed Thatch early.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Okay, yeah, yeah, no, good kid. We've we've we connected the dots pretty quick, too. Took you and I a little bit longer because we're both of the about the same decade era when we were born, and so Thatch's brain's a little quicker. So his his his recall on names is a little quicker than yours around. But uh yeah, Bob Condi. Who was the other ones? Brent. I bought a gilding from a guy down here, he was a pilot. Brent, oh my gosh. And then and then what what was the what was the other guy that uh yeah, a lot of guys from here in Utah that we were of course the the the men in halls, we knew them well. And and uh Summerhaze, Boyd Summerhaze, you remember Boyd Summerhays?

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Cowboy what was it called? Uh Cowboy Grub up on uh Foothill Boulevard. Yeah, yeah, cut against him a lot. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Summerhaze was a good guy. Yeah, and and Frank, Frank, uh oh, you're you're failing me. You don't ever forget names, and I'm I'm but they're all kind of coming back to me now.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

I can't even remember my own name.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Yeah, well, most of the time. I I struggle with my birth date and um wedding anniversaries.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Oops, that's not a good thing to say.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Well, after 44 years, that's I I don't ever forget.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Who got married the day after taxes are due?

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Yeah. Oh 16th of April, that's an easy one to read.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yeah, that's a good one to remember. So so great day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

After taxes.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

I'm not sure we're gonna have to pay any now. We'll do a podcast. There's no money coming out. No money on it. Well, listen, uh, we appreciate your song.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Tell me about the song you played. Oh, it's a it's uh uh Gordon Lightfoot's song I learned a long, long time ago. Okay. Peter Paul and Mary actually recorded. I didn't know it was Gordon Lightfoot's song.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

Isn't it funny how that becomes more important to you as you get older and you start to play music?

SPEAKER_01 9:30

And uh, you know, a tremendous songwriter, but it was a song that I learned when I was doing folk music rather than the Western stuff that we're doing now. Sure. And it's kind of a catchy little tune.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Yeah, no, it was a pretty tune. I and I and I and uh once again, sorry I didn't recognize it, but we hear so much music on this podcast, and we go from artist to artist and we try and educate ourselves. Unfortunately, we come to an event like this, we meet all these new people, we don't get to know too much about your history until we sit down. Yeah, but we appreciate you talking about this. So you've been involved with Dale since you started this.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Yeah, first year, 16 years.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Wow. What a cool event.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

It's a great event. It's been it's grown. We've moved at uh different venues a couple of times.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Started at the high school, didn't I?

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Started out the high school. Yeah, and uh I will tell you this the one good thing about this event is during COVID, everything shut down. There was not, I mean, even Nelko quit.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

This is the only event that I'm familiar with that did not shut down for COVID. Yeah, it was a last-minute deal, but we all came.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Well, that's cool, and that's and Dale told me that story. The only other thing that I know of that stayed was the National Finals Rodeo. They moved it one year to Texas from Las Vegas. Everywhere else, everybody shut down, right? But Texas says we welcome you with open arms. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

You know, I was referring just to Western Festivals.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yes, yes, but but you're right. No, there was oh we we had we were so starved for hung for live music, yeah, because that's our love, is live music, that we actually hired uh Mickey and Gary Braun, you know, Muzzy's boys, yeah, came and did a private show for us and 60 of our friends, and they wouldn't let us advertise it because they didn't want to take the flack over it, right? Yeah, which I don't blame them. And uh, but we we got 60 friends and family members, and we got together in a milk barn in Firth, Idaho and had a great time. But it was just it was so hard for us to to not have live music because it's a big part of our lives. And now, especially we we literally it's a it's a weekly event for us, you know, for the podcast. So but man, we appreciate you taking you guys letting us come down here and and help. What we try to do with this podcast, what we're trying to do more of, is let people know about these events and make this be a destination. Well, next year put it on your schedule to come. Yes, because it's well worth it.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

It's worth it. It's a great event. Yeah, absolutely great.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

You have I don't know how many total, do you know how many artists that are on the schedule?

SPEAKER_01 12:12

I can't count that high. I can't either fingers.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

But what a what a cool event. You've you've had a lot of great artists here and the poets, yeah, all of it. And and you know, we we opted because we were in Elko, but we didn't interview interview any poets. Uh we decided to interview poets here because you can't have a song without the written word, without the with the topic verse, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:34

The the the the so I've been fortunate to be able to uh co-write uh with poets in this local area.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Yeah, and we've got a few songs out, and I and I love that, and something we're starting to do in Southeast Idaho. We're we actually hosted our very first one a week ago, uh um uh Songwriter Rounds. Uh to my knowledge, it's never happened in Southeast Idaho. Uh-huh. And so we we started, and we have another one this coming Thursday in Idaho Falls. We're hoping to make that a uh uh a couple times a month and build it into a full-blown songwriter festival uh in Idaho Falls. Good. Because I think our downtown will support it, and hopefully the the the locals will support it. Well, I hope that they do, absolutely do. But uh anyway, thanks again for your time. Thanks, appreciate it. Hey, for Musical Miles Podcast, I'm your host, Byron Duffin, here with Mr. Dave Anderson at the Cash Valley Cowboy Rendezvous. We'll see y'all somewhere down the road, audio for now. This episode of Musical Miles Podcast is sponsored by Stetson, a true symbol of Western heritage and American craftsmanship. For generations, Stetson is stood for quality, style, and authenticity. Stetson built for those who live the music and the lifestyle.