Want to pull up a piece of blanket by the campfire and hear stories from a real-deal buckaroo and Western artist? Link up to the Running Iron Report Podcast No. 1. Craig Rullman and I could not have done better for an inaugural podcast than to spend an hour with the likes of Len Babb. He’s an authentic example of a way of life that is harder and … [Read more...] about Running Iron Podcast No. 1 Is Up

Longtime readers of Frontier Partisans know that Tom Russell is a giant in my pantheon of storytellers. His music has been the soundtrack for many an adventure down dusty desert roads and mountain trails, and he’s a key influence on my own songwriting and music. I learned to fingerpick because he said I should — and just as he promised, it opened … [Read more...] about Old Songs Yet To Sing

Rick Schwertfeger keeps tormenting me with erotica from John Rigby & Co.’s launch of their Highland Stalker rifle. It’s doubtless a bit of cold-served revenge for my nagging him to purchase a CZ Mannlicher .22. Note for the record that I am leading him into the temptation of spending around $500. The rifle he’s dangling in front of me runs a … [Read more...] about Highland Stalker

By Paul McNamee, Captain, Frontier Partisans New England Ranging Company My wife and I have a long running joke/tradition: We never go on vacation without buying a new sweatshirt. It’s not that sweatshirts are our favorite form of souvenir. It’s that we invariably under-pack and find ourselves a bit chilled. One year, on our annual Maine beach … [Read more...] about Stuff That Works — Cabela’s Windbreaker

Mariano Medina was a tough hombre. My first knowledge of this Mexican Mountain Man came from the book Crow Killer, which is a highly unreliable compendium of fact and legend about John “Liver-Eatin”” Johnson. That book is such a tangled mess of fact/fiction/folklore that it’s impossible to know what’s authentic. Was Mariano a deadly friend of … [Read more...] about ‘Keep Her Clean, General!’ — Mariano Medina’s Rifle

Ever since Utilikilt hit the scene in Seattle back in the early 2000s, I’ve wanted a “utility kilt.” Yeah, the phenomenon was kind of a hipster thing, but I didn’t care. I thought the concept was fantastic, badass and, well, utilitarian. But the damn things were priced way beyond what I was willing to pay. The market has since worked its magic — … [Read more...] about Stuff That Works — A Frontier Partisan Gets Kilt

A while back, one of you fine Frontier Partisans mentioned an outfit named Zombie Tools. I completely missed the Zombie Apocalypse bandwagon and actually find the whole trope tiresome, so I never followed up. My bad. I love these guys. Zombie Tools is a band of brothers formed under the auspices of the trickster god Loki, bound together by a … [Read more...] about Zombie Tools — Welcome To The Post-Apocalytic Jungle

Let’s drink, let’s fight, let’s fornicate by harbor light… Who could resist such an invitation — served up by a winsome wench smudged with black powder? Come all ye Frontier Partisans and listen here to me — this is what the world needs: A Swedish pirate folk band that plays music melodically inspired by traditional Celtic and Scandinavian … [Read more...] about Ye Banished Privateers

It has become evident in recent decades that masculinity is under siege. We need not go into the sordid sociological details here — the evidence is a mere Google search away. In a world where the male romper is a “thing,” it might be tempting to give in to despair at the state of manhood in the West, as reflected in “acceptable” male attire. Ah, … [Read more...] about Big Hats And Tall Boots — On The Persistence Of Manly Attire