Cowboy singer Dave Stamey has been called “the Charley Russell of Western Music,” and it’s an apt description. Charles M. Russell was a gifted period artist who painted over 2,000 canvases of cowboys, Indians, and the landscape of the American West in the late 1800s and early 1900s, each done with emotional resonance and meticulous detail. Stamey does the same thing, only as a musician. His songs capture the life of the modern cowboy in a world of rapid transition, where some things change constantly and some things never change at all. But Stamey is far from a genre facsimile. He has been a working cowboy, rancher, mule packer, and dude wrangler, so he understands the territory well and he also knows his audience, and he just happens to be a natural entertainer and an astute businessman. His recorded work feels naturally authentic, always professionally recorded and played, and carrying a cultural and historical exactness without being overly fussy about it. Among his many independently released albums are Buckaroo Man (1997), Tonopah (1999), Campfire Waltz (2000), Wheels (2001), If I Had a Horse (2003), the live It’s Just a State of Mind (2007), Old Friends (2007), and Come Ride with Me (2009). ~ Steve Leggett