Western poets, musicians kick off Genoa festival

Staff Reports

The Genoa Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival opens with a treat for fans of cowboy music and poetry with the western duo of Larry Maurice and Dave Stamey, 7 p.m. April 29, at the festival's main stage in Mormon Station State Historic Park. Joining the pair is western balladeer and Dayton native Richard Elloyan.

Northern Nevadan Maurice and Californian Stamey won the Will Rogers Award from the Academy of Western Artists, and Stamey has performed at the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

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.

Their performance 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.

Daily passes for workshops, tickets for headliner concerts and a full schedule of events are available at www.genoacowboyfestival.com.

The Genoa Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival is sponsored by the Town of Genoa, 782-8696, and the Carson Valley Arts Council, 782-8207.