“I called myself a cowboy; I was full of buck and bawl. I didn’t think my hands would fit post augers and a maul. They sent me out with Shorty and the ranch fence building crew. Well, I was quite insulted, and before the day was through, I let him know that I’m a cowboy. ‘This ain’t what I do. I ain’t no dadgummed nester, I hired out to buckaroo.’ He said, ‘We’ll talk about that, son, when we get in tonight. Right now you pick them augers up. It’s either that or fight.’”
– Red Steagall from “The Fence That Me and Shorty Built”
When he entered the room, a hush spread like a blistering wildfire. This tall, ambling cowboy sporting starched Wranglers and a finely creased hat immediately lent an affable presence. He was here to tell stories, an art upon which he’s constructed a legendary career.
Red Steagall extended a coveted invitation for our team to join him for an interview on his secluded 75-acre ranch in Parker County. The well-appointed spread stretched out over rolling hills with enviable tree coverage throughout. It is a cowboy’s dream—something he might have thought of as a starry-eyed boy coming of age in the cracked plains of the Sanford Ranch in West Texas.
“The ranch and the river bottom were my playground,” Steagall recalls. “I’d sit up on the bluff and dream that I was going up the trail with Goodnight. The next day, I might dream that I was a Comanche warrior. The cowboys from the Sanford Ranch were truly my heroes and the image of what I wanted to be.”
These adolescent reveries later bled into throwing the pigskin at high school football games and aspirations of becoming a veterinarian. But it all abruptly halted when Steagall contracted polio at 15.
“We got through what we thought were tough times, but as I look back, I don’t remember a minute of hard times.”
Steagall performed cowboy songs around Amarillo for $25 a night. In 1965, he moved to Hollywood, where he captured hearts by writing music.
Steagall co-wrote “Here We Go Again,” recorded by iconic singer Ray Charles. His clear talent and Texas grounding led him onto national sound stages with the widely syndicated radio program “Cowboy Corner” and television program “West of Wall Street.”
“I had a real good career as a songwriter, and then I decided that I wanted to start recording,” Steagall says. “So I did and built it all from scratch.”
In 2006, the captivating storyteller was honored as poet laureate of Texas. His commitment to preserving the cowboy way also inspired the Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering, which is hosted every fall. Musicians, poets, ranchers, and families fellowship in the Fort Worth Stockyards and celebrate the enduring traditions of the American West.
The gathering was born after Steagall, singer Don Edwards, and Steagall’s brother, Danny, attended the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. They returned home convinced that Cowtown had merited a gathering of its own.
“We decided that if any place in the world deserved to have a cowboy gathering, it was Fort Worth, Texas,” Steagall says. “Those stockyards created an entire group of people, an entire community, and a big, big business. We ought to celebrate the mules, the horses, and the cattle that went through the sale ring.”
Steagall recalls working cattle along the Canadian River, which could be treacherous, particularly in areas where the quicksand gave way beneath horses and riders. Cowboys depended upon one another for their safety, making trust a matter of survival on the range.
“You realize there’s no finer compliment for a cowboy than to say, ‘I’d ride the river with him,’” Steagall explains. “There are a lot of things that I hold very dear that tell you what kind of person you are.”
Steagall believes western customs preserve these values. Staying in one’s assigned place during a roundup, removing a hat upon entering a home, and leaving muddy boots at the door are expressions of respect.
“The most important element in the cowboy way of life is considering the other person before making a decision that will affect you both,” he says. “If you don’t take the time to see their side of the story, you never truly learn anything.”
To learn more about the gathering and to follow upcoming events, visit redsteagallcowboygathering.com.