Baxter Black – Black in the Saddle

By Bennett Owen

Credit: Bam's Blog

“He was every burnt out cowboy that I’d seen a million times
With dead man penny eyes, like tarnished brass
That reflected accusations of his critics and his crimes
And drowned them in the bottom of a glass.”

- The Buckskin Mare, Baxter Black

Credit: The Selvedge Yard

The New York Times lauds him as ‘…probably the nation’s most successful living poet.’

Credit: NPR.Org

Baxter Black describes his success this way…“There will always be a need for someone who can think stuff up.”

Credit: GoNomad.com

His repertoire includes humor, song, poetry, homespun wisdom and a good portion of outright foolishness, tinged sometimes by a hint of melancholy. Black is a rare crossover talent (Pioneer Woman is another) whose multi-faceted talents play well in ranch houses across the west even while stirring hearts and tickling big city funny bones. So on any given day Uncle Jules might be reading his column in Western Horseman while my buddy Paul listens to his NPR bit in Yonkers. And all the while, Black maintains a fierce fealty to the cowboy mystique and an authenticity that is the very key to his popularity.

Credit: CBSVegas

Black deprecatingly refers to himself as a ‘large animal veterinarian’ but he is first and foremost an entertainer, on the road throughout the year (he appears in Evanston, Wyoming on May 14^th) along with a newspaper column, bountiful CDs and five books including one called ‘Croutons on a Cow Pie.’ Here’s an Emmy Award winning profile that you won’t want to miss…especially the million dollar view from his outhouse down in Arizona border country.  His money quote…”Ya gotta like a place where the town seal is a cow, a locomotive and a box of dynamite.”

Wabi Sabi from Dan Sheffer on Vimeo.

Credit: WantItAll.co

Check out Black's website at: www.baxterblack.com