August 2, 2005

Taste of the West at MASS MoCA on Friday, September 2

(North Adams, Mass.)-- When Robert Redford was looking for the right person to play Smokey in The Horse Whisperer he turned to Don Edwards, calling him "the real deal." MASS MoCA brings the Wild West to the Berkshires on Friday, September 2, at 8 P.M. when Edwards takes the Club B-10 stage. James Earl Jones called him "a singing scholar of the old West," and USA Today termed him "one of the country's most popular cowboy singers".

Songster, guitarist, and composer Don Edwards' career has spanned more than three decades, enriching audiences worldwide with his authentic Western music and his knowledge of cowboy lore. This renowned cowboy poet keeps alive traditional verse of the Old West with ballads that evoke the sights, sounds, and feelings of frontier living.

In 1997 Edwards was presented his second prestigious Western Heritage Wrangler Award from the Cowboy Hall of Fame. His recording Saddle Songs received the Indie Award for the best traditional folk recording of 1998. He was the Western Music Association's Performer of the Year in 1996, '97, '98, and '99. A historian, author and musicologist as well as musician, Edwards is the living embodiment of this most distinctive expression of American culture.

Cowboy Poet Don Edwards is sponsored by Sky Meadow and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tickets to Don Edwards are $16 in advance or $19 the day of the show. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall Street in North Adams, open from 11 A.M. to 5 P.M. Wednesday through Monday (July 1 through August 31 from 10 A.M. until 6 P.M. daily). Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours or purchased on line at www.massmoca.org.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located off Marshall Street in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org