Because I am Dan Canyon and Shorty and West are plainsmen.

Occassionally we play live, at barn dances and cowboy gatherin's. Our Circle C ranch keeps us pretty busy. Lots of ridin' and ropin' and brandin'. We do find time to write and record our original cowboy tunes and our favorite cowboy classics. One special moment occurred when Shorty got tangled up with a calf we were brandin' and West accidentally branded him instead. Ha,Ha, we sure laughed over that one.

Well; it sure gives all us hard workin' cowboys a chance to be heard and seen by a lot more people than you can just playin' at the county fair.

Of course. That's every cowboy's dream. That and a good horse.

A few years back, my riders and I were moving a small herd of 75 steers down from Winthrop to our own home range near Douglas. A sudden thunderstrom forced us to seek shelter in an abandoned cabin along the old Coulee City stage road. As we made ourselves comfortable and began to dry out, we set about exploring the old cabin. In a back room we discovered an antique wind-up grammaphone and some rotten leather saddlebags. Inside were a handful of recording disks labeled Dan Canyon 1901. Now this peaked our interest because we had heard of Dan Canyon before. My Grandpa had once told us of a roaming cowboy who rode for area ranches and sang at weekly dances. He was believed lost or killed by outlaws in the early part of the last century, because he did not show up for the Omak dance that week and was never seen or heard from again. We wound up the machine, got a nice fire going and listened to the scratchy voices and guitars. My riders and I were so moved by what we were hearing, we decided to bring back the music of Dan Canyon so that his legacy could live on.

I would say we are influenced by western movies and tv shows. (Red River, Shane, Hondo and Bonanza). Along with western novelists. (Zane Grey and Jackson Cole). Perhaps our greatest influences come from listenin' to Bob Nolan and The Sons of The Pioneers, along with Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.

Our favorite spot is that tall hill in the western section of our Circle C ranch, that overlooks that pretty little unnamed creek. It's mighty peaceful there.

Shorty and I are awful partial to Gibson, Fender and Martin guitars. And West swears by his Ludwigs. And none up us would be caught alone on the range without our Colt's.

Review of our cd from THE ROCKET, Seattle's best music magazine. Now defunct.

"DAN CANYON sent a note suggesting we need to cover country music more in this magazine. And this is the kind of country music we like: more Everly brothers than Garth Brooks, with a hint of Riders in the Sky. When you play nearby, we'll cover ya..."ed.