Michael Shaw tips his hat to a fearless cowgirl on the rockabilly barn-burner "Cowboy Boots and a Little Country Dress," from his forthcoming album He Rode On (out June 3).
Shaw says the song was inspired by his experiences at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, an annual week-long festival celebrating cowboy poetry, music and art in Elko, Nevada.
"'Cowboy Boots And A Little Country Dress' was written after myself and a couple friends drove down from Montana to the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada one winter for a highly eventful weekend," Shaw tells Wide Open Country. "Not only did I meet Grant Siemens, who would come to produce and play guitar on my album, I learned how to yodel, met legendary folk singer Ramblin Jack Elliott, and hit it off with a bucking horse riding cowgirl who helped inspire the song."
"The song is about a guy who's out with his friends when he spies a beautiful cowgirl ('a bucking horse rider, not afraid to be thrown.') In a flash, he's out chasing her around town, drinking and dancing until the wee hours," Shaw continues. "It's exactly what happened on our second night in Elko. In fact, nearly every idea from 'Cowboy Boots' is pulled directly from my experience that weekend."
Listen to "Cowboy Boots and a Little Country Dress" below.
Now based in Nashville, Tenn., Shaw worked as a horseman and wilderness ranger in Western Montana for more than a decade.
"I've always felt drawn to wildness—wild people, wild places, wild emotions," Shaw says.
