NOVEMBER 2000 BACK ISSUE
Part of Horse Previews Magazine website. Posted on 11/05/2000; 2:00:00PM.
A Cowful of Cowboy Poetry
by Baxter Black
ISBN 0-939343-30-4, 224 pages, Copyright 2000Coyote Cowboy Company, P.O. Box 2190, Benson, Arizona 85602
Nearly everybody has read his poems, but if you've ever seen a Baxter Black video presentation, like on Public Broadcasting TV somewhere, you know he's not a one man band. His musical band and production crew are pros. This book is like his entertainment, solid, with four of the best supporting artists (he calls them "cowboy cartoonists") you will find working in the print medium. When you pick up this anthology of poems, the book just feels good. It's weighty, substantial, hardback. Right-sized and tactile, it gives the immediate impression of being chock-full of good stuff. There's Baxter, pictured heroically on the front cover, mustachio to the max, in glorious color, relaxing in the saddle on his trusty cow horse, on the range, under an expansive Arizona sky. You're never gonna see a bluer sky than that.
The physical and technical production of the book is first rate. Glossy, full color photos of the writer and artists are inside the back. The paper stock is beautiful and grandly displays the complementary illustrations which accompany nearly every poem. Poets must envy the writer, artists the artists, and publishers the Coyote Cowboy Company for creating a work which is so obviously just right.
There are over a hundred drawings in all. Twenty-eight are by Bob Black, six in color and four double trucked across the pages. Twenty-eight are by Don Gill, six in color, three of which were newly drawn this year (2000). Fifteen are by Dave Holl, with eight color and black and white illustrations of the "little joe" poem. Charlie Marsh drew thirty-two pieces, six in color. I'm telling you, the drawings add that perfect ingredient to the poetry that makes the book extra mighty special.
I like Gill's tight work better in black and white. The drawings are so intricate and dynamic that color just doesn't do them justice. I like his illustrations of Samaritan Angle and Jose, and the Hoodoo Cow better than the colored Hell Creek Bar or the lead off (and promotional piece) Cow Attack. For zaney, you can't beat Gill's The Power Professional Processing Team. I think Dave Holl's style adapts a little better to color than Charlie Marsh's, but Bob Black comes across best in full color, especially Moonrise in the middle of the book, and the wonderful The Outfitter's Jerky near the end.
I like Bob Black's people and Dave Holl's cowboys, and I get a kick out of Gill's Cowmen and men of the livestock industry. Inside is a special presentation of "he sang...'little joe the wrangler' " intertwined with Marsh's distinctive illustrations of the cowboy and his horse. I like Gill's cows just slightly better than Bob Black's, but I rave over Black's horses, especially the ones setting off Loose Cow Party. I just love Marsh's dogs, illusively accurate yet expressively comical as in Balin' Wheat. Black's dogs, especially the Blue Heeler of RC and BUD make you proud of your own dog. On the cover fly it says the "cowboy cartoonists" try to make Baxter look good. They succeed!
As for the peotic content of this colorful tack room table book, it is way beyond the grandest expectations. It has 30 new pieces (124 in all) never published in book form before. I like them all, but I have my favorites. I have horses, so I like SLICK--The Super Horse, his poem about riding Doc Bar Lena. I'm a proud father, so I like First Dance, about the dancing dad. I love dogs, so RC & BUD, the poem about the valiant Blue Heeler, just does wonders for me. I'm a local veterinarian's best customer, so Veterinary Diagnostic Voice Mail tickled me pink. And, I have a pickup, so I follow the thematic thread embedded in the Baxterian ethos. He writes funny and you don't have to read "Why Cowboy Poetry's Funny" to learn why. It is obvious throughout. As a poet, Baxter Black is a Thoroughbred, and like Citation, "he's everything they said he was!"
Fasten the gate... Bob Howdy, Ph. D.
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