Entertainers performing at the Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin’s Cowboy Christmas Concert this Saturday evening at the Gibraltar Room will bring a mix of song and humour to the evening.
The performers include folk and bluegrass artists Pharis and Jason Romero, country singer Stanley Stump and popular cowboy poets Frank Gleeson and Bruce Rolph.
Stanley Stump
Stanley Stump grew up in the Chilctoin and has been playing guitar and singing since he was a young boy.
He sang and played in a band with Morris Bates early in his career.
Stump writes some of his own songs and sometimes puts his own words to other songs. He has been invited to entertain at many hockey and rodeo year-end banquets.
He has been very involved in the community volunteering time with hockey, rodeo and other sports his children and grandchildren are involved in.
He was named Grand Chief by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs in recognition of his 25 year involvement with the association.
He is often called upon to sing at funerals of old friends and cowboys and he has one recording to his credit.
Bruce Rolph
Cariboo poet, Bruce Rolph will be entertaining with poems based on everyday happenings in a rural lifestyle. He first started writing poems for the crew at the Williams Lake Stockyards, where he has been sorting cattle since 1984. Bruce competed in rodeo in the 1970s and early 80s and later spent many years judging events. Bruce and his wife Lonnie love calling the Cariboo home and have a cow/calf operation in the Horsefly area.
Pharis and Jason Romero
Pharis and Jason Romero make their home in Horsefly where Jason makes banjos and the couple enjoys playing folk and bluegrass music which they perform together and with their musical friends around the Cariboo and further afield.
The Romeros are committed to the idea of local music and can be found performing at venues such as the Horsefly and Wells festivals.
Jason and Pharis and Friends have three CDs. Playing as the Old Time Stringband with musical partner Erynn Marshall they created Shout Monah. Their second CD is called Back Up and Push, which the Romeros made on a tour from Vancouver Island to Oakland CA recording music with their fiddling friends along the way.
Their first duet CD together is called A Passing Glimpse. This CD is a mix of traditional and original music.
Frank Gleeson
Williams Lake rancher, Frank Gleeson is known as the fastest, funniest, cowboy poet in the west. Frank writes all his own material and has logged five books of poetry. He has also recorded four CDs of his poems and songs.
His original poems are delivered in an easy going, humorous style. On several occasions, Gleeson has been nominated by the Academy of Western Artists to receive the Will Rogers Award for male cowboy poet of the year. In 2003, he placed in the top five.
His songs and poems have been played on radio and television throughout Canada, United States and Europe. He has entertained numerous dignitaries in performances across Canada and the U.S. In 2003 Williams Lake City Council named Gleeson the “official poet of Williams Lake.”
He has been a feature entertainer many times at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada and the Kamloops Cowboy Festival.
In March 2010, Frank was inducted into the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame in the artistic category.