Last week acclaimed cowboy performer and songwriter Mary Kaye spent the morning doing educational outreach at Canyon Elementary School.
With 10 kids of her own, Kaye knows how to enthrall an audience of fifth graders with a genre of music many had never heard before that morning.
Many wonder, well, so what is Western music? Is it similar to Country?
“Country music is a very popular genre of music. But its music, lyrically, is centered on life in the Southeast part of the United States," said Kaye. "Even though you see the boots and the hats from the entertainers, Western music is of the people that live in the West. A lot of the lyric theme will be about cowboys. But in Western music when we sing about cowboys, we’re talkin’ cowboys, like cow pucky on your boots cowboys. I think that is what makes Western music different. I would love to hear Western music played more on the radio. Right now it’s still a small genre,” she said.
Kaye’s unique brand of Western music adheres to tradition, but with a dash of contemporary spice.
“I write contemporary Western music, which is about life in the rural West today. But also I take old traditional songs and I think I try and give them new life so that people hear them in a new way. I think we get used to hearing a song done a certain way over and over again, so I try and take a traditional tune and just twist it a little bit to make your ears listen,” she said.
She says gatherings such as the Cache Valley Cowboy Rendezvous are important to the culture of the West. The poetry, music, and craftsmanship, bring people together from all walks of life.
“I want audience members to really smell the campfire and feel the spirit of the West when they hear my songs. I want them to feel that they don’t necessarily have to own cows to relate to the music that I’m singing. I do feel that the spirit of the West is something that’s in everybody’s soul and I hope that comes through in the music I sing,” she said.
She will be a guest performer at the annual Cache Valley Cowboy Rendezvous this Saturday, February 28 at Mountain Crest High School. For more information visit their website.