The Western Music Association has now issued the final ballot for the 2008 Western Music Awards show, which is held at the annual WMA convention in Albuquerque in November.
The first go round is the opportunity for artists to be nominated by their peers and fans for the various awards, and the second go round allows the voting membership to vote amongst the the top ten nominees in each category. In August comes the the Top Five ballot, and I'm pleased, humbled, and grateful to be nominated in three categories:
Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and Entertainer of the Year.

Of course, the rest of the top five ballot is loaded with the favorite and best of the world of Western Music, and because these awards are determined by the votes of fans and our fellow performers, the WMA awards are very special. Among the other nominees are my friends Dave Stamey, the Riders in the Sky, Wylie and the Wild West, Patty Clayton, Bill Barwick, poets Yvonne Hollenbeck, Pat Richardson, and Jau Snider, Sons of the San Joaquin, Belinda Gail and Curly Musgrave....and others!

I fly to Reno next weekend for a festival where I'll bill with pals Dave Stamey, Waddie Mitchell, Jon Chandler, and Pat Richardson. I'll see my little sister Susan while I'm there, and hopefully her great kids, my favorite and only niece and nephew, and her beautiful boxer dog, Rocky.

I've been riding Flipper the Wonder Horse while I've been home, enjoying early evenings along the shady backfield treeline and we walk along on the soft grass, me singing to him, him delighting me with his still quizzical and happy nature. At 21, he still tosses me a surprise once in a while, and is starting his fourth career in life now as a hackamore horse, next I'll switch him to the two-rein, and hopefully will have in in the bridle next year sometime...if he's ready. He certainly won't be the first ever Thoroughbred bridle horse, after all the vaqueros of old California didn't ride Quarter Horses...the breed did not exist till the 1940s. I watch most western movies and TV programs with tongue in cheek...the horses of the actual time frames were certainly not at all like the horses used in the movies these days! The vaqueros rode Spanish Barbs, Arabian crosses, Thoroughbreds, and other hotter bred horses. Not that the modern Quarter Horses and Paints bred for the Reined Cowhorse and cutting events are in any way cold blooded...on the contrary, they are as hot in some ways as any Thoroughbred or Arab, but over time, especially up in the rugged Oregon and Idaho buckaroo country, many ranches had some influx of draft breeds to add bone size to their herds.

Anyway, Flipper seems to like his new job, and I am having a great time remembering my past as a trainer of cow horses...it's coming back to me a little more every day. As fall approaches, the nasty green head flies and horse flies that can be so aggressive towards thinned skinned horsed that it can get dangerous, are starting to dwindle down, thank goodness.
I love fall in Tennessee...will be on the road in Colorado and Wyoming most of September and October, but I'm not complaining about that!