Cowboy Curmudgeon and Other Poems

Wally McRae is a classic among today's cowboy poets. He recites his poems regularly on a syndicated television program, "The West," and often is a featured performer at the annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko. He has performed at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, among other places. In 1990 McRae became the first cowboy poet to be granted a National Heritage Award from the NEA in Washingto, D.C. And all this while managing his family's 30,000-acre cow-calf ranch in Forsyth, Montana.

McRae began writing poetry over twenty-five years ago in an attempt to record the values, humor and plight of his occupation. He leaves no western subject uncovered. His topics range from hat etiquette and hollyhocks to ballad-like tales and cowboy nostalgia. Three previous books of his poems have been published. This wonderful collection contains over fifty of his most popular poems, including classics such as "Reincarnation" and "Give Us a Son, Ian Tyson," along with forty new poems published here for the first time.