Saddle up for Taber’s annual cowboy poetry round-up

Posted on March 12, 2026 by Taber Times

By Trevor Busch
Taber Times
editor@tabertimes.com

If you’re ready to see the sights and hear the strains of traditional Western music, head down to the Taber Cowboy Poetry and Western Music Round-Up at Parkside Manor on March 28.

Last year was the first time the round-up was held at Parkside Manor, and the group is happy to be returning to a venue that worked well for them.

“We went to the Parkside Manor people, and they were overjoyed to have us come there. And everybody that came to the gathering, all they thought was it’s so much better than the (Taber Community Centre) Auditorium,” said David Woodruff, president of the Taber and Area Cowboy Heritage Society. “Our sound man for years has been saying, ‘Well, let’s try this. Well, let’s try that.’ Every year, let’s try something else to see if we can’t make the sound better. It was built for a certain type of thing, and the Cowboy Poetry Gathering always worked before, but the sound was a little lacking. Well, in Parkside, it was great. It was a cozy place. The only person that was a little bit upset was the trick roper, because the ceiling is not 18 feet tall.”

The round-up will go from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on March 28 at Parkside, and will include performances from headliner Ed Brown and a cowboy tribute from Bud Van Cleave, among other entertainment. 

“We have Ed Brown, from Oak Lake, Man. He’s an old rodeo rider, community-pasture cowboy,” said Woodruff. “He has broad experience traveling and performing all over from Mexico to northern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan, Manitoba. He’s got a voice of velvet, and he is darn good on a guitar, and I’ve seen him team up with one of the gals from a folk group that was really big when I was a kid. The senior group is headed up by a guy called Randy Sparks (who is about 10 years older than our Randy Sparks in Taber) and Sue Harris, I’ve seen them at Maple Creek a couple of times performing and they sound so good together. She lives in Phoenix, Ariz., and she likes it down there, so she doesn’t come up here very much. In fact, I haven’t seen her since before COVID, I think. They were really popular. She has a unique voice.”

The family-friendly event features seasoned professional musicians and poets, up and coming artists, and student performers. Snacks and refreshments will be provided by Kabakula Catering.

“Ed (Brown), when he got sick and tired of the broncs breaking him up into little pieces, he took his guitar and went to the bars to play, and everybody looked down their nose at him, because he didn’t sound exactly like Garth Brooks or Clint Black or Kenny Rogers, and they had never heard the songs, because what he was doing was original stuff, stuff that he had written so they were not familiar with it,” said Woodruff. “And his friend said, ‘Well, hey, let’s take you to a Cowboy Poetry Gathering. And they went to the gathering and the people said go ahead, you play guitar and sing – come on in. You’ve got your own stuff.’ Oh my goodness, they just about bowed down and he said the difference was just shocking.” 

Woodruff contends cowboy poetry gatherings are a much different atmosphere from most other performance venues.

“And I’ve noticed that – I’ve been to gatherings from Lewistown, Mont., Kamloops to High River, Maple Creek, and all kinds of places in between, and they’re all the same. You walk in the door and you can just feel the love, people are accepting. And if I make a mistake when I’m performing on the stage, nobody throws eggs or tomatoes or booze or anything. But there are some really good talents come to these things, too. There’s the whole nine yards from beginners to seasoned performers.”

Previously for many years an annual Taber tradition, the round-up was discontinued after a long consecutive run a few years ago – but Woodruff and others were determined to revive it.

“The cowboy poetry gathering fell by the wayside. It’s good family entertainment – let’s bring it back. So we got working on bringing it back, but the kids aren’t involved anymore. I remember, coming up, many came in and did poetry. It was great. Then when they graduated and went away, there was no more kids. And I said, ‘Well, let’s change that. Let’s go to 4-H clubs and Scout troops and high schools and junior highs and invite the kids to come.’ And so once COVID was over we started having it again. The first year, we had one teenager, she was good – every bit as good as us old guys ever are. And the next year, we had three kids. And last year, we had 15 kids come and perform, 11 of them were my grandkids, and the rest were their friends. And so we feel to bring these new young performers along is a good thing. And we’ve thought that it’s sure nice to bring in seasoned performers for two reasons: it’s good for the show, and number two, it’s good mentoring for the youth that come along. Show them how the old guys do it, and then they can adapt and adopt anything that they can find into their act. And everybody will benefit from it.”

Woodruff hopes to put Taber on the map as a destination for these kinds of gatherings and performances in the future.

“We really need to thank local businesses for kicking in. Everybody seems like they’re kicking in. We really need to thank the MD Council for the support that they’ve given us. They’ve been wonderful. And I’m thinking Taber corn, that’s great. But is there any other reason why people might come to Taber? Let’s make it cowboy poetry on people’s mind to get in there, in that lineup. And give Taber more exposure, bring people here to you. I want to thank our board, too. We have a fantastic group of seven people on our board that just really help out. And we try to make sure that we don’t overwork anybody, because I’ve seen two or three gatherings go by the wayside from burnout and death of the members. We sure don’t want to have that happen here.”

Youth involvement is key if the round-up hopes to survive in the future, something Woodruff is acutely aware of, and something he is making strides to incorporate.

“So we have great hopes that we can do it and not hurt but build the town up and build the people up, and especially build our kids up, get them to performing. The teachers want to go around the schools, and they say we’d like to have kids perform, and if they can write their own poetry or write their own songs, that’d be great. And I think we do have youth that have written poetry. We’d like to have the kids doing them. Get them off their devices. And if they can write poetry and music on their tablets, that’s even better.”

Woodruff is excited for some great entertainment on March 28.

“We try to do family entertainment, we’ve got a lady that does face painting, and we’ve got some other vendors to come to show their wares. The face painting lady was really popular last year, and she’ll be back. “There’ll be some really good food available for purchase there, too.”

“Thank you to The Taber Times for all the exposure that you’ve given us through the years, and thanks to the local businesses for the support that they have. Especially the MD Council and the Town, thank them for their support. Never let it be said I wasn’t grateful. I might not have been, but never let it be said,” joked Woodruff.