Frontier Partisans

The Adventurers, Rangers and Scouts Who Fought the Battles of Empire

Frontier Music In The Valley of the Chiefs

July 23, 2020, by JimC

Facebook is a toxic stream in a lot of ways, full of fool’s gold, and panning it ain’t necessarily good for your health. But every now and then, if you pick the right spots and your heart is pure (!) you find yourself swirling out some paydirt. That happened twice on Thursday, which made for  a pretty good day.

The esteemed folks at the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada, regularly post footage from their annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and on Thursday they ran a song by a feller named Forrest Van Tuyl. Turns out he’s a buckaroo in some of Eastern Oregon’s real wilderness country in the Wallowas — and a poet and singer-songwriter. I keep up pretty good, but I’d never heard him before. And I like him a lot.

Americana-UK.com (and ain’t it grand that there is such a publication), described his music thus:

“…it feels like it’s modern American frontier music of the deepest kind – about living in one of the last parts of the North American wilderness in the 21st century.”

It’s a good interview, and I particularly liked this passage:

Q: Maybe it’s an overly sweeping question, but does your work/life as a cowboy drive your life/work as a musician or is it more vice versa or kind of both? 

A: Working with horses didn’t start til I was 25. And when it did, it changed my entire perspective on songwriting and music. Working horseback became just as exciting, interesting, stimulating, and creative, and took the pressure off of music to be the primary focus of my life. That really allowed me to loosen up, take bigger risks, put less weight in my failures, and overall just be more purposeful in my approach. It also gave me way cooler shit to write about.

*

Cowboys & Indians Magazine posted a feature on Crow bluesman Cary Morin. Again, never heard of the guy. They premiered a track titled The Valley of the Chiefs.

“It’s based on a true story told by my great-grandmother at my Crow naming ceremony when I was about 4 years old,” says Morin. “It tells of when she was a teenager and was kidnapped by a neighboring tribe. When women were kidnapped back then, they were destined to a life of servitude. She and her friends escape the warriors and are able to steal their horses and ride back home. The moral of the story from my great-grandmother to me was that there is nothing in life that you cannot overcome.”

Morin believes his great-grandmother was giving him this story to teach him perseverance in the face of any obstacles he might experience in life and he wrote “Valley of the Chiefs” as a “memory of my life and my culture.”

Unfortunately, the studio version buries the vocals in the mix – at least to my ears. This live version is mighty tasty:

 

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Comments

  1. Greg Walker says

    July 23, 2020 at 3:10 pm

    Jim,

    Thanks for turning me on to Cary Morin and his music.

    And ditto on Facebook. A dear friend here with penetrating insight recently convinced me to “go dark” and deactivate my page. She did so several years ago and hasn’t looked back since. I aim to stay on her back trail with this choice now made.

    Again, thanks for the tip on Morin.

    Reply
    • JimC says

      July 23, 2020 at 3:12 pm

      Glad you liked. That man can fingerpick. Holy smokes…

      Reply
  2. Quixotic Mainer says

    July 24, 2020 at 6:28 am

    Great tunes, thanks as always! Is it just me or are open crown hats getting more common? I saw two different guys wearing them in the last two weeks, one at a tack shop, and the other coming out of a microbrewery.

    Reply
    • JimC says

      July 24, 2020 at 6:31 am

      There may be an open crown renaissance going on…

      Me, it’s either a teardrop fedora crown or a Montana Peak.

      Reply
      • Quixotic Mainer says

        July 24, 2020 at 7:17 am

        I like to think seeing any hat out and about as a good sign! A low crown with a pinched front is the only one for me, I can’t pull off the Captain Call look. I don’t think I’ve seen a Montana Peak on anything that wasn’t a uniform hat out here. They do look sharp though.

        Reply
        • J.F. Bell says

          July 24, 2020 at 3:56 pm

          It’s an odd combination, but lately I’ve developed an appreciation for the short-brimmed Montana Peak. One of those things that covers a lot of territory – and a lot of years.

          Regardless a man’s preference I’m all for a resurgence of proper headwear.

          Reply
          • Quixotic Mainer says

            July 25, 2020 at 7:32 am

            Well said! I don’t think I’ve seen that combination before, kind of neat though as I’m imagining it.

  3. J.F. Bell says

    July 25, 2020 at 4:02 pm

    Or a felt sombrero. A turn-of-the-century sombrero as you’d find on the Texas-Mexico border is a thing of beauty. These days it’s unreasonably difficult to find one that isn’t overdone in a novelty or mariachi styling.

    Still, the dream persists.

    Reply
  4. Lynn Woodward says

    July 28, 2020 at 10:15 am

    I met Forrest when he opened for Corb Lund in Portland, August 2018. Really good opener for a great all-around show. Down-to-earth person, too. Like his music, writing.

    Reply
    • JimC says

      July 28, 2020 at 10:43 am

      Cool name, too.

      Reply

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