ENTRIES:
Tom Russell: Zarzyski
Spur Award
3/5/2010
Troubadours
The Gathering
Hang-n-Rattle! Digi-pack
Promo Postcard
New Fans
No Forbidden Flowers
September 17, 2009
American Cowboy Review
Cowpoke Cosmos
First 9 Weeks of 2009
Elko Daily article
Major Ink
Hang-n-Rattle!
Newsflash: 12/4/2008
Reno Gazette-Journal Review
Santa Fe Lensic Theater
Close Encounters—The Interview
Commencement
Putting the Bite into Cowboy Poetry
ARCHIVE
© Paul Zarzyski. All rights reserved. These words may not be reprinted or reposted without the author's written permission.
Master Jump-n-Kick Photographer, Ross Andrèson, captured (no-doubt using the highest speed film available today) this un-retouched, Gustafson-Zarzyski, music-fueled action at the 25th annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada on January 29, 2009. Maestro Andrèson works for The Elko Daily Free Press and over numerous Gatherings has both skillfully and miraculously shot Paul during some of his most pulchritudinous moments on stage; as you’ll astutely note here, Ross invariably negotiates as focal point Paul’s most complimentary profile features. The spur-wild, did-you-come-to-ride-or-did-you-come-to-hide dance, not so incidentally, seems to be a hybrid cross between a Bardic Four-Stroke Mazurka and a Planet UniPoet Two-step. Or something purt-near to that. Although usually performed to Paul and Wylie’s co-written hit, Rodeo To The Bone, from the BUCKING HORSE MOON disc, it has been known to kick-in also to a number of rock-n-rowelers from the recent HANG-n-RATTLE! recording, including the title track, another co-write, printed below.
To witness close-up and personal the motion picture version of Ross Andrèson’s extraordinary stop-action photograph, join Wylie & The Wild West, Wally McRae, Stephanie Davis, and Paul at The Emerson Center in Bozeman, Montana on Friday June 26th at 7:30 p.m. Their performance, titled FROM ELKO TO BOZEMAN TO THE COWPOKE COSMOS (especially the latter) is guaranteed to boldly take you, at warp-10-Pegasus-speed, where no audience, cowpoke or otherwise, has ever ventured before. Proceeds from the event will benefit The Western Folklife Center in Elko—1-888-880-5885 for ticket info.
Hang-n-Rattle!
Wylie Gustafson—Two Medicine (BMI)
Paul Zarzyski—Bucking Horse Moon Music (ASCAP)
Aristotle, Plato, Jung and Freud
Were philosophizing good ol’ boys.
But the gist of all their words of wisdom
Begs the quintessential western question:
Did you come to ride? Or did you come to hide?
Big talk comes cheap from a padded bar stool
But the roughstock gods don’t suffer no fools—
Sundown, Steel, Pickett, and Brown
Watchin’ every move as you screw yourself down:
Did you come to ride? Or did you come to hide?
Did you come to ride? Or did you come to hide?
Make up your mind nowYou’re born on the back of a high spinnin’ rock
Life’s winding down with each tick of the clock
Well it’s high time, brother, you let it HANG-n-RATTLE!
Let ‘er HANG-n-RATTLE!
Crack the bomb bay doors and feel the wind a-whippin’—
Fan a megatonner like ol’ Slim Pickens.
Fire in the heart, fire in the hole—
Smokin’ explosions of rodeo soul.
Did you come to ride? Or did you come to hide?
YEEEE-HAWWWW!!Did you come to ride? Or did you come to hide?
Did you come to ride? Or did you come to hide?Let ‘er HANG-n-RATTLE, now—
Let ‘er HANG-n-RATTLE…
Let ‘er HANG-n-RATTLE!