Cowboy Poet on The Loose

Montana based cowboy Rusty Feather's spreads a feast of poetry and music with his 17 track CD Cowboy Poet On The Loose. 41½ minutes of words of wisdom, take you from the trials and tribulations of trying to rope grisly bears with "No Special Skill", to bareback riding a buck deer with "The Coming Of Spring" to a "Ranch Hands Revenge" with the help of a skunk and a barrow-load of horse-dung. Listen to the "O'l Time Fiddler" playing a gypsy tune, or just trail 4,000 head of longhorns to the railhead through the clouds of "Trail Dust". That familiar refrain of "Home On The Range" is given fresh appeal by Rusty, Larry Gibson and John Westbrook while Rusty joins forces with the Montana cowboy T.J. Casey to start "A Reservation For Cowboys". From a very short 33 seconds to the longer 2-3 minutes, Rusty tells his tales of the cowboy life, be they light-hearted or filled with deeper meaning, the thought provoking verse is driven straight to the heart.

Rusty Janzen was born in Dallas Oregon in 1960 and grew up on the riverbanks of the Willamette where he I spent many hours hunting, trapping and fishing with his best friend. His dreams started through stories from his dad about the cowboys in Montana and Wyoming and how they wore their guns in to town. Rusty's Grandpa told stories of his days of ranching in the early 1900's and how hard it was to make a living those days in Wolf Point Montana. Then the great depression hit and he went broke and took a job laying the railroad through Montana, working his way up to engineer.

After high school Rusty took several ranch jobs, I ran about 200 head of polled Herefords, branded, vaccinated and built fences for the Circle S Ranch; "the best part was riding fence, gathering cattle and calving time and I also branded for the J spear in Paisley Oregon, the largest deeded acre ranch in Oregon." declares Rusty. With dreams of owning his own outfit he relocated to Montana. Rusty reveals; "I did a little bull riding on the side for a few years, then found my nitch in bulldogging. I ran the rodeo circuits in the Northwest for several years making somewhat of a name for myself. I've many rodeo stories to tell but not enough time to tell ya right now."

Quite a wiz on the dance floor, like two-stepping across Oregon for the MDA, Rusty boasts; "I wore out 5 girls on that one and 4-pairs of boots! I am quite fond of the dance floor, my mother taught me to waltz when I was 10. I've clogged on stage with June Carter-Cash, hunted bear in Alaska, caught rattlesnakes barehanded, traveled from old Mexico to the Yukon in Canada and been to every state this side of the Mississippi and a half dozen on the other side and build my own home from the ground up."

In 1985 with a couple of friends Rusty started the Desperados Wild West shows performing shootouts, saloon brawls and various types of horse stunts. He says "I've been writing poetry here and there for a few years now and I find myself enjoying it more and more." Writing under the name of Rusty Feathers came about by signing his name, Rusty would always draw a feather after writing Rusty. "Back in 91 I put on The 1st annul cowboy pick-nick and rodeo, and am credited for being the 1st to bring cowboy poetry to the Willamette valley in Oregon. I also had Monty Montana trick roping, rodeo hall of fame announcer Mel Lambert announcing the rodeo and Chris LeDoux singing for the grand finally, what a weekend that was!"

Living in Laurel Montana with his wife Sabrina and two children, Rusty's plans for the future include, "buying a large ranch, building another home and living the cowboy life till my days here are through!"

Contact Rusty rustedfeather@usadig.com