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C
owboy Poet Extraordinaire, Brian
Salmond has an unusual and refreshing twist on his writings. He has the
uncanny talent of seeing the humorous side of seemingly every situation and
is able to record it on paper in the form of a poem for others to enjoy. While
delivering his odes to an audience it is obvious that Brian is also gifted in relating
his stories to others.
Brian is a tall, lanky, rugged-looking cowboy type, the image you would expect of a
man who has spent his life on the back
of a horse raising cattle. On his father's farm he learned how to handle
their team of Percherons and at age thirteen he received his first saddle
horse. Four years later Brian started wrangling horses for the many "Big
Game Outfitters" near his home on the Alaska Highway in Northern
British Columbia. Brian met many interesting people from all over the world and worked
side by side with the local horsemen.
Brian began his cowboy poetry by doing what came naturally
to him. He would write down something that had happened to one of the
guys at work and recite the poem to entertain the boys around the campfire or at
the bunkhouse. He found that his role models and heroes were great subjects
for poems as were the local legends and history.
Today, Brian raises cattle and ranch bred Quarter
Horses with his wife JoAnn and five sons on their spread at Charlie Lake, near
Fort St. John in northern
BC. The people he comes in contact with and day-to-day happenings are
still the things that Brian's poetry is made of. He delights his audiences when performing
at conventions, rodeos, festivals, and gatherings, such as The Pincher Creek Gathering
and the Kamloops Cowboy Festival.
Brian sums up his career this way, "I'll
still raise livestock till they dig me in."
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