KGNU’s Big Daddy joined cowboy poet, singer, and musician JJ Steele, sharing insights into his role as MC at the 34th Colorado Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering in Golden, Colorado. Steele also discussed his passion for preserving cowboy culture, outreach programs for youth, and shared some poetry as well. (Interview date: 1/18/2025)
Big Daddy: JJ. Steele.
JJ Steele: Howdy.
Big Daddy: From Westcliff, Colorado. Hey, welcome.
JJ Steele: Yeah, thank you. Really glad to be here driving through the snow in an old Ford truck.
Big Daddy: Did you have any problems?
JJ Steele: No, it’s fun.
Big Daddy: Tell us about why you’re in this area today.
JJ Steele: I’m up here as a board member for the Colorado Cowboy Gathering, and we’ve been having a really good time over at the Buffalo Rose, putting on the 34th annual Colorado Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering. Today’s the last chance to catch this year’s performance. The show kicks off at, I think, doors open at 9:30, and then there’s music and entertainment all day until this afternoon. They shut it down at about 5:00. So you’ve got live entertainment. The Buffalo Rose from 10:00 till 5:00. And then tonight, the evening performance and my blessed position is that I get to MC the evening performance tonight. So I’m really tickled to be here and to be doing that and being a board member, putting this show together, doing the poster design and things like that. Or I’m not personally, but making sure that all gets done. Those are the wheels that kind of push this thing down the road a little bit. So that’s why I’m here.
Big Daddy: All right. And also in the morning you have another duty. You are the policeman. Or shall we call you sheriffs to make it wrong way?
JJ Steele: No, I begged off of that. They were writing things in my schedule for me there, and they thought I ought to be in two places at the same time. And I said, no, I’m going over there to the radio station and talk to more people and get the word out. So again. Last chance to get this year’s show.
Big Daddy: Yeah. And I think the snow has died off. And the roads will be plowed. So I don’t think it’s going to be a bad thing at all to try to get down to Golden, Colorado for the 34th Colorado Cowboy Gathering. And you told me off the air that you were at the 35th now.
JJ Steele: I haven’t, it hasn’t been there yet. And actually you have to go over the calendar backwards. The original. Colorado Cowboy Poetry Gathering was the Great Pikes Peak Colorado Cowboy Gathering in, in Colorado Springs.
Big Daddy: Alright.
JJ Steele: It was at the Pikes Peak Center. And that was in 1990 and the reason why I know this is I was there.
Big Daddy: Okay.
JJ Steele: I was there, I put together by my old buddy, cowboy poet, singer, songwriter Gary McMahon.
Big Daddy: Oh.
JJ Steele: And the backstory behind that, the reason why I speak, Gary was dating his now wife Candace, and she was the daughter of Dick Spencer of Western Horsemen. Fame that Dick Spencer and that’s where the backing if you will for that first show at the Pikes Peak Energy came from that so that’s why it happened down here the next year Liz Masterson in all of her wisdom really took the show and moved it to Arvada where it ran for many years at the Fine Arts Center in Arvada Which is where I got I started there 18 years ago at the Open Mics in Arvada.
Big Daddy: Really?
JJ Steele: And then the last several years, and I’m not sure how many that has been, it’s found a new home in Golden, where the West lives, and the old West comes alive in each of these performers that are on stage today and tonight.
Big Daddy: Fun.
JJ Steele: It really does. It’s beautiful. If you’re not familiar with the genre, give it a taste. It’s something that you really probably like.
Big Daddy: And can you talk about who’s going to be performing tonight?
JJ Steele: Yes I can.
Big Daddy: I bet you can.
JJ Steele: We got award winning, actually the female performer of the year for the International Western Music Association is Patty Clayton. And she’s leading the thing off tonight, Patty Clayton. And Patty writes buckaroo ballads and she does this really good swing thing too. She’s really sweet. So Patty’s going to be there. Danny McCurry from Missouri. There’s a rhyme in there. There’s a rhyme in there. Danny McCurry from Missouri. I’m going to use that tonight when I introduce him. Anyway, I met Dan the other day. He’s just a little fella, about 6’8, something like that. And we were at the outreach program at the schools, and he was paired with myself to entertain fourth graders at some of the various schools. Part of what we also do with the Colorado Cowboy Gathering is an outreach program to go and share cowboy stories, cowboy lore. With the youth, fourth graders, typically.
Big Daddy: What I like about the Cowboy Gathering is, it’s like an infomercial, they have you learn new things as they go while they’re doing their shows. You learn about the West and get a sense of what that is. And there’s interesting facts that you can learn, too, like the other night. King Arthur did not invent the round table, circumference did.
JJ Steele: Now that is indeed a sample of cowboy humor.
Big Daddy: I love it. If I can steal a joke, I’ll do it, man.
JJ Steele: Yeah.
Big Daddy: Should we play Patty Clayton and then we come back and you’ll play us some songs on your guitar?
JJ Steele: Sure. What are you going to play from Patty here?
Big Daddy: All right. Patty Clayton. shout out to Southside Jeff, Art and Trudy Debbie Richardson and we remember Lauren on this day because it was a year ago that he passed away. And now we got JJ Steele in, in our midst Don Cook and give him a shout out and Betty Buchel as well. So we have JJ. He is a cowboy entertainer, a musician, and poet, and he’s going to give you what he does. What are we going to do, JJ?
JJ Steele: I tell you what I, this is my go to song. In situations like this, I try not to walk on it too much here this morning. But the backstory on this a little bit was recorded by Marty Robbins in about ‘62 or ‘63. I was about fourteen years old back then, and it hit me at home then, still does today. It was written by his backup musician and guitar player Cowboy Joe Babcock. Toured with him all of Marty’s touring career. Joe Babcock was his backup musician and Joe’s still recording. He’s 80, lives in Nashville now, but he grew up in Nebraska, so he is really a Nebraska cowboy. And I grew up in Northeastern Colorado. So this kind of hit me at home. And so I got this for you. I think everybody knows this here. Pretty soon you’ll know which song I’ve got here. You got the guitar? Can you pick that up? You got it?
Big Daddy: Sounds good to me.
[JJ Steele plays Doggone Cowboy by Marty Robbins]
Big Daddy: Oh, that was awesome. The name of that song is I’ll be a doggone cowboy.
JJ Steele: I’ll be a doggone cowboy. Joe Babcock wrote that. Again, Marty Robbins recorded it.
Big Daddy: I’ll be darned. What year are you recorded at?
JJ Steele: ‘62 or ‘63. Something like that, yeah.
Big Daddy: Alright, I’m going to look for that song too. Oh yeah. Excellent.
JJ Steele: And Joe’s got it on his album as well. I think it’s on Riding West is the name of the album he’s got it on.
Big Daddy: Okay. Wow.
JJ Steele: And Joe, he won a swing album of the year at the Western Music Association 3 years ago called Trail Jazz. He’s got the best Nashville musicians backing him up in his little band there and he’s, again, the heart of cowboy music.
Big Daddy: See, this is educational as well as enjoyable. Thank you. Hey, JJ, are you going to be performing sometime today before 5 o’clock?
JJ Steele: Myself, personally?
Big Daddy: Yeah, yourself personally.
JJ Steele: No, I’m not. I am the MC tonight and that is a big enough performance.
Big Daddy: Do you want to do a poem or should we go on to the music? Or should we come back and do a poem?
JJ Steele: Come back and do a poem
Big Daddy: Come back and do a poem. Okay. He’s putting away his guitar. JJ, one more question: You said you’ve just been a cowboy performer for 18 years as a cowboy artist?
JJ Steele: I came out of the closet in about 2006. And I, because I still had young girls at home and I didn’t want them to endure the embarrassment of having a parent who was an entertainer, a cowboy entertainer. So anyway, that’s why I put it off, but I’ve been a cowboy and a poet. Mostly, all of my life, actually.
Big Daddy: Wonderful. I don’t know, I was never afraid to embarrass my daughter because they get back at you.
JJ Steele: They do. They do. Especially when you’re later in life.
Big Daddy: Later in life, yeah. Alright, folks. We’re back. It’s 8:08 on a Saturday morning. 52 minutes left in this action packed, rip snorting show. Especially with my guest, JJ Steele. JJ offered to do a poem and I graciously accepted his offer.
JJ Steele: Yeah. I’m gonna sip a coffee here. Now some folks might want to be a cowboy poet, but the fun is in living the poem. Grow up in a cow town around them and sell barns where you learn how to spit and to tell them tall yarns. You learn to trade livestock, not to buy them too dead, and buy lunch for your buddies. Now the rest is in your head, like giving it your best or seeing it clear through. Then there’s music and rodeo just to name two. Draw up on a wild one and ride to the moon. Come down by the campfire and sing a sweet tune. Or Startin some colds will get you your jolts. Feeding some calves will cut your dollars to halves. Or maybe the post that you set is just on the mail. Or maybe the highway you drive is your kind of trail. Or maybe the stock that you work at the store. Or the ledger you keep at the bank. It’s the way that you do it with pride from the start and a cowboy spirit to thank. Now most of us know it’s an art to go through this life with a song in your heart and a smile on your face for the whole human race.But the cowboys we sing of, and the songs that we play are just glorified versions of who you’re today. When the sun comes up and your shadow stands tall you’re a cowboy poem.
Big Daddy: All right. We’re back with JJ Steele.
JJ Steele: Hey. Yeah, we were just listening to Floyd Beard.
Big Daddy: Floyd Beard. Yeah.
JJ Steele: What was the title of that track? Did you look that up? The Canyons.
Big Daddy: It comes from Horsetails and Cow Trails.
JJ Steele: Yes. He had another one before that was called Shortgrass Country. Both of them are really great CDs. But Floyd’s award winning. You can’t enter a poetry contest where he won’t win the thing. I tell you, it’s standard for him to be the winner. And he has been the IWMA poet of the year. Let me look at the numbers here. 2016, ‘17, ‘21, and ‘23. And that’s remarkable. He’s a standing cowboy poet.
Big Daddy: And he’s from New Mexico, right?
JJ Steele: No, he grew up in New Mexico. But he lives in Kim. Yeah, he grew up in New Mexico.
Big Daddy: Have you ever gone to see him in Kim, Colorado?
JJ Steele: No, I have not. I’ve been to Floyd and Valerino. His wife is a cowgirl poet too, cowboy poet. And she had the poetry album of the year two years ago. So I’ve never been to their home. But they run coriander cattle down the canyon country down there and I can just imagine it’s beautiful
Big Daddy: I’ve always wanted to see it because Kim is east of Trinidad Colorado and I guess it’s hilly there. It became a state park a couple years ago. But I remember when they said the crazy Frenchman owned it. And you could send him a letter and ask him for permission to hike on his land, but he would most likely say no, and then I guess he sold it to the state. It’s Fisher’s Peak. Yeah, I love Trinidad. And I’ve been wanting to go down there, and I guess they have a B&B, or they can take you around.
JJ Steele: The family has a B&B there. And they also run a feedlot operation down there. But I understand that she is, the daughter-in-law or daughter is a docent of the Painted Canyon, I think, which has hieroglyphics from, Native American glyphics. And there’s an old homestead back in there. And I understand she’s the docent and can take you around. And there’s a little crack in the wall back there where the natives actually set some stones so that it measures the spring and fall equinox. So they were doing that kind of thing back in that canyon back there, and that was a fun place to camp. We camped there overnight one time.
Big Daddy: Now where’s that at?
JJ Steele: You can spit to Oklahoma from there. It’s that close to the Oklahoma line. And there’s some canyons, it’s all that canyon country down in there. But I thought about it a little bit, it’s not the Paint Mines because that’s around Calhoun. It’s the paint, something. Painted Canyon. I think something like that. Anyway yeah, that’s beautiful down in there.
Big Daddy: So can she take you on those tours?
JJ Steele: Yes. She can take you on those tours. Prearranged. I assume it’s not like they’re there. You think you’re lost by the time you get to this place. You’re driving around and you are dang near in Oklahoma on the back roads.
Big Daddy: Oh my god. Okay, so I get it. And it’s south of, definitely south of Springfield, probably.
JJ Steele: Oh yeah, south of Springfield, and I want to say west of Kim, East of Kim. Ten miles.
Big Daddy: Oh, it’s west of Kim? Oh, the spot where the canyon is? Okay, I was in Kim and I was going east. That’s why I said that.
JJ Steele: Yeah, but it’s snowy out, so who can tell?
Big Daddy: Really, yeah. Compasses don’t work in snow. Everybody knows that. I just made that up. What do we got next? Doug Figs. Wait a minute. No, we’re gonna Peggy. No. No, we’re gonna skip both of those. Russellers.
JJ Steele: There you go. Alright. Play something from The Russellers.
Big Daddy: Why don’t you talk about The Russellers for a minute.
JJ Steele: You queue it up. The Russellers are actually very good friends of mine, and Dennis is the founder of the Cimarron Cowboy poetry gathering. It ran for seven years until the pandemic kind of shut it down there. And then in the meantime, and that’s how I got to know him. He invited me to come down there. He walked up out of the crowd and said, “You look like a cowboy poet, why don’t you come to Cimarron Poetry Gathering?” I went to another one and then he and I became pretty good friends and then he moved about 40 minutes away from where I live in Westcliff. He lives in Red Wing. He and his bride Beverly Gray Russell and they are the Russellers. They literally jumped the room during the pandemic. And then they tour a lot. And Dennis is forever sponsoring new cowboy poetry shows and things like that. He and I now are co producers of The Day of the Cowboy celebration at the Jones theater in Westcliff on The Day of the Cowboy. Last Saturday in July, which this year is the 26th. And so we have a matinee performance and in the evening, we go someplace nearby and sit around and do a round robin session. Someplace where you can probably get a beer or something like that. So Dennis and I are really good buds. If he isn’t my best friend, he’s sure a long ways ahead of whoever’s in second place. So play Dennis and Beverly Russell.
Big Daddy: The Russellers. Also, I want to give a shout out to Roger, your friend from Westcliff, Custer County.
Big Daddy: And with me closing up the show today is the legendary and entertaining and shy JJ Steele.
JJ Steele: Oh, I’m so shy.
Big Daddy: So shy.
JJ Steele: They make me blush. Coming through the apple leather face I got here. Born with a face for radio. I’m a volunteer DJ for a radio station out of Westcliff Independent Radio Station. We do Cowboy Corral down there bi-monthly show down there, and I really enjoy spinning these very tunes that we’ve been playing here today.
Big Daddy: So every other month you’re on here?
JJ Steele: No, every other week. I said bi monthly, didn’t I? I get my monthlies and my weeklies mixed up sometimes.
Big Daddy: I was going to say that’s a long gap.
JJ Steele: That’s a whiskey in my boot, I think.
Big Daddy: Are you going to write a song? You just wrote two lines. Whiskey in my boots, sloshing around.
JJ Steele: That’s a good one. The whiskey in my boots clear up to my eyebrows. Whoo! All right. And I tell you what, I paid good money for it. It’s not wild turkey.
JJ Steele: If it were wild Turkey, my headache wouldn’t be so bad. Oh, that’s what that stuff is good for. Oh, I drank some whiskey when I was a kid. Oh, man, it just ripped your scalp right off.
Big Daddy: Oh, really? I bought a bottle of Kentucky Deluxe once, and I paid six dollars for it and there was nothing deluxe about it. Halfway through the bottle like, I couldn’t get a buzz and I couldn’t even get the taste. So I threw it away. Don’t ever, I’m not trying to tell you what to buy or not buy folks, but it didn’t work for me.
JJ Steele: I don’t think you can even get this anymore. It used to be, I call it whiskey coach and it came in a mirrored bottle. And the mirrored bottle was cute, a little pint bottle, it could look at it and it would smile back at you, yeah, but, oh my, it was terrible. They put the mirror on there so you couldn’t see what color that whiskey was in there.
Big Daddy: Moral of this show right here, don’t ever buy a whiskey with a mirror in it. You’re asking for trouble.
JJ Steele: I like that.
Big Daddy: Maybe I should be the songwriter.
JJ Steele: You probably are. We’ll get you on stage here next year.
Big Daddy: Okay. How about Doug Figgs?
JJ Steele: Doug has been the male performer of the year for the International Entertainer of the Year last year, I believe for the Western Music Association. And he travels around. He really loves playing, and he loves singing, and loves playing the guitar. For a horse shooter, he’s gone a long way. And also we have a local singer songwriter that recorded some tracks recently. Michelle Castillo, and I promised to play something from her, and she has a great steel guitar player on this track.
We’re gonna play Gold and the Glory. Michelle Castillo. I really like the way she plays her guitar and sings and writes songs. We got three minutes left. I guess I’ll play a little bit, but JJ, you wanted to tell people, the students, how to get an A in their courses in college.
JJ Steele: Yeah, that’s a good one. You can imagine the conversations that happen while the music is playing here. The best way to get through a course, is what I found as an undergrad, is to find out what the teacher’s or the professor’s hobby is, and then ask them a generalized question. “Have you seen any butterflies lately, Mr. Smith?” And then he’ll get up there and start talking about his butterfly collection for the next three hours and you get an A that way, just by looking really excited and interested in bugs. Before we quit, I want to remind everybody about the Colorado Cowboy Gathering at the Buffalo Rose. The daytime sessions are about to start here another hour, so hustle over there from 10:00 till 5:00, and then they’re going to take a break, come back at 7:30 till 10:00 tonight. That’s a 12 hour window of cowboy music and poetry at the Colorado Cowboy Gathering, the Buffalo Rose.
Big Daddy: And if you don’t get your fill, then you’re probably a real cowboy. We’re going to play a little bit of this tune and turn it over to Matt for Old Grass, New Grass.
