Cowboy Randy Erwin in action
Singer/yodeler “Cowboy” Randy Erwin is the November 2009 artist-in-residence.
Randy grew up on a family rice farm in south Texas, where he learned to pass his time while working the plow by singing “continuously, loudly and badly for 12 hours a day”. After years of studying classical piano, Randy picked up a trumpet and joined a local polka band, which later morphed into a “bad” country western cover band. Randy has his undergraduate degree in film and radio production from the University of Texas, Austin, and will begin graduate studies in communications and fancy girlish ballroom dancing at the University of Illinois at Springfield, January of 2010. He is also a self-taught trick roper and delights children of all ages with his entertaining skills during his musical performances. Randy currently lives in Springfield Illinois, working in the schools as a performing artist, and as a living history actor (playing The Ghost) at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. A short sample of Randy’s performing history includes the New Orleans Jazz Festival, the Seattle International Children’s Festival, Library of Congress, Canadian and National Public Radio, Carnegie Hall, as a singer/yodeler for the Disney movie “Home on the Range” and playing a cowboy yodeler/trick roper in the indie movie “True Stories”.
Randy: “I’m currently creating multi-track, wordless, a Capella songs using extended vocal technique (including yodeling). These tracks will then be engineered to interact with the natural acoustics of any given space, and intertwined with ambient noises including the sound of water, rock-fall, fauna, wildlife, or people. All tracks will be mixed and mastered in coordination with video and still pictures into work that will be presented in live performance.”
While in-residence, Randy will perform at an assembly for our local public school and present an Evening Program performance of original music, traditional cowboy tunes and do some trick roping. Randy will spend his own time collecting ambient sounds of the Canyon for future projects.
