Genoa Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival opens April 29

Staff Reports

The Genoa Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival opens on April 29 with the western duo of Larry Maurice and Dave Stamey - a treat for fans of both cowboy poetry and music. The pair won the Will Rogers Award from the Academy of Western Artists.

Both split their time between being on horseback and being on stage, although Stamey admits he prefers facing an audience to being stomped by angry horses. Maurice is a Northern Nevadan. Californian Stamey has performed at the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Joining the pair is Dayton native and western balladeer Richard Elloyan.

Their performance is 7 p.m. Thursday, April 29, at the festival's main stage in Mormon Station State Historic Park, and kicks off a schedule of performances by poets Waddie Mitchell and Paul Zarzyski, cowboy singer and Grammy nominee Don Edwards, Lacy J Dalton, David John & the Comstock Cowboys and others.

The four-day festival features more than 80 workshops and presentations on Dutch oven cooking and guns of the old West, nightly cowboy dinners, three galleries of Western art and collectibles, and the Native American Cultural & Historic Center.

A variety of daily passes for workshops and tickets for headliner concerts are available at www.genoacowboyfestival.com.

Special lodging rates are offered at festival host hotels Carson Valley Inn and Holiday Inn Express.

The Genoa Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival is sponsored by the Town of Genoa, 782-8696, and the Carson Valley Arts Council, 782-8207. Tickets and a full schedule of events at www.genoacowboyfestival.com