This thing happened on Thursday evening. Boy was it fun. I could sit around a campfire and talk frontier history with Michael Punke for hours. Maybe days. Really enjoyed this, and pretty proud of the way it came out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-pZnQ7ChQI Y’all really should pick up this book. You’ll dig it. … [Read more...] about Talkin’ Hundred-In-The-Hand Blues

Reader Reese Crawford sent a podcast recommendation and it’s so good I don’t want to let it get buried in the post comments. Turns out that MEAT EATER features a number of podcasts, one of which is called Bear Grease with Clay Newcombe.  The episode Reese recommended is titled Death of a Bear Hunter — and it’s just fantastic. Here’s the … [Read more...] about Erskine’s Grave

“I do love that there is still a lot of mystery about the Fetterman Fight that will never be resolved. It's a perfect place for historical fiction to fill in the blanks.” — Michael Punke Punke will explore how he filled in the blanks on one of the most compelling episodes in American frontier history in a Books in Common NW virtual event on … [Read more...] about Climbing To The Ridgeline

This crossed my trail this morning. Everly Brothers-style harmonies on a ballad reminiscent of the classic Western vignettes of Marty Robbins? Yeah, I’m in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLAJ8GrAx3o   Jamestown Revival’s PR outfit sent out a missive: When the recording process of their new EP, Fireside With Louis L’Amour, was all … [Read more...] about ‘Bound For El Paso’

The image is graven in my psyche — Davy Crockett swinging his rifle in a brave, last stand against swarming Mexican soldiers at the Alamo. The image came, of course, from Disney’s Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier. As it did for so many kids back in the day, the image lit a spark that kindled to a flame that will not go out until I ride up … [Read more...] about Forget the Alamo?

The title deserves an award all its own. Sure caught my eye. Then I saw the author’s name. I know Josh Ritter as an “Americana” musician and songwriter. He played the Sisters Folk Festvial’s Winter Concert Series here a few years back and absolutely blew the doors off. Here’s a real good sample of what that’s … [Read more...] about ‘The Great Glorious Goddamn Of It All’

No, no — this ain't a COVID-19 post. After a long sojourn in the woodlands of the 18th Century Ohio River frontier, I’m turning my focus back on one of my other favorite theaters of operations: Southern Africa. And in so doing, I ran across news of a coming re-issue of Charles van Onselen’s Masked Raiders: Irish Banditry in Southern Africa, … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — Who Are Those Masked Men?

They’re trying to break me. First it’s a new bio of Jim Bridger (first in half a century); now it’s ace narrative historian Jeff Guinn shouting “Tonight We Ride!” I figure if you’ve read Guinn’s The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Gunfight at the OK Corral and How It Changed The American West, you don’t really need to read another Wyatt … [Read more...] about Tonight We Ride!

Looks like I’ll have to be picking up Sebastian Junger’s next tome, which drops on May 18. You will have no trouble discerning why… Throughout history, humans have been driven by the quest for two cherished ideals: community and freedom. The two don’t coexist easily. We value individuality and self-reliance, yet are utterly dependent on community … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — Freedom Without Remorse

Daniel Boone was a man of average stature, but his mythic presence continues to loom over frontier history. Turns out, he WAS a “big, big man” — if not exactly “the rippinest, roarinest, fightinest man the frontier ever knew.” Exhibit A for the case that Daniel Boone remains America’s premier Frontier Partisan, at least in the public … [Read more...] about The ‘Unmatched Mystique’ Of Daniel Boone