Badass Santa, in his wisdom and generosity, delivered tomes to be mined for the materials that will craft Series 2 of The Frontier Partisans Podcast. As of now, the plan is for a three-parter: • The Highland Frontier. The Highland Line was a frontier zone for centuries. The English and the Lowland Scots thought and spoke of the … [Read more...] about Highlanders, Stuarts And Sea Dogs

I’m a big fan of the blog Hillbilly Highways. The best thing about the internet is that it brings together communities of like-minded folks who would likely never cross paths without it. H.P. and I have very similar tastes in books and music and there’s a big overlap in our historical interests. I was honored to be asked to be his guest for Episode … [Read more...] about Whiskey And Book Club

By David Wrolson High Plains Scout George MacDonald Fraser is probably best known for the Flashman series of novels. These are a collection of books that place the hero (lightly speaking) at almost every historical point from the British disaster in Afghanistan in the 1840s to the Charge of the Light Brigade to Custer’s Last Stand and beyond. … [Read more...] about The Frontier Partisan World Of George MacDonald Fraser

Liam Neeson has the badass-of-a-certain age character totally locked down. The Marksman has the look of a satisfying if somewhat formulaic modern Western. If your formula includes Liam Neeson and Katheryn Winnick, I’m in... Here’s the caper: Neeson stars in The Marksman as hardened Arizona rancher Jim Hanson, who simply wants to be left alone … [Read more...] about The Marksman

I’m a folker. This is not news to long-time readers here, nor to those who know of my 25 years of involvement with the Sisters Folk Festival. I’m no kinda purist; I love me some rock & roll, and genuine country music remains dear to my soul. Nevertheless, when you dig down to the root, it all comes back to folk music. By way of illustration, … [Read more...] about Bold Ben Hall

Tom Russell, one of the great American singer-songwriters, done wrote a book. Against The Blood. “A few words on the saga: Welcome to 1953. A Pima Indian and a young cowboy songwriter are driving across the Great Western Deserts on an odyssey to pick up a load of saddles… discussing Western history in a dying film era when there were 100,00 … [Read more...] about ‘Bad Trouble Ensues’

The other day, I stumbled across a post on Facebook that sent me right back to my youth, sitting on the edge of my bed in a tiny bedroom in La Crescenta, California, completely absorbed in the words and pictures of Edwin Tunis. For several years running when I was probably 10-12 years old, I got for my birthday or Christmas a volume of Tunis’s … [Read more...] about Frontier Living

There is no more fundamental frontier tool than the axe. From the Atlantic Seaboard to the Mississippi River and from the Rockies to the Pacific Shore, this was the implement that shaped America. A professional woodsman has written a loving tribute to this fine tool, and it’s going to have to find a place on the Frontier Partisan Bookshelf. Are you … [Read more...] about American Axe

It’s a good thing I enjoy the company of Daniel Boone. He keeps showing up in my path. The esteemed Ted Franklin Belue’s new one is out: Finding Daniel Boone is a unique tribute to America's frontier hero and offers closure to the greatest of all his mysteries: where he was buried. Part biography, part historical travelogue and eloquently … [Read more...] about Boone’s Bones

An Irish folksinger from Portland named Peter Yeates headlined the very first Sisters Folk Festival in 1995. He came back for the ’98 Festival. He was a character. I was a drinking man back then, and we had us some fun at the ’98 afterparty, tipping back pints, banging on guitars and singing boozy, bawdy songs. One of my favorite moments … [Read more...] about Wild Colonial Boys