We’ve been road warriors for about six weeks now covering the progress and completion of “Good Ride Cowboy” – a life-and-a-half size bronze of Chris LeDoux spurring Stormy Weather to a world championship. Artist/sculptor Mike Thomas of Buffalo, WY placed a replica in bronze of LeDoux’s favorite Guild guitar as base of the piece which weighs in at 3,500 pounds. Lori Hogan and Kristin Phipps of our staff helped out at the dedication ceremony Saturday in Kaycee where the population of 300 was multiplied by ten. LeDoux fans, friends and family came together for what Western Underground guitarist Mark Sissel aptly termed a “reunion.”
Lori and Kristin took a lot of pictures and we’d like to share them here:
Chris LeDoux Park Tribute
Our Mike McCrimmon is providing video footage to GAC (Great American Country) for airing by the network’s popular host, and big Chris LeDoux fan, Storme Warren on his show called “Headline Country.” We’ll let you know when to watch for that. In the meantime, Mike put together some shots for you to enjoy:
LeDoux sat
Once the tarp was pulled away it was clear that Chris LeDoux will live forever and his fans including Garth Brooks still ache to be in the presence of Chris’ smile or an unwitting participant in one of his practical jokes.
Chris LeDoux Memorial Park is not hard to find in downtown Kaycee. Please stop by, rest and reflect, the next time you’re in the vicinity. No doubt a LeDoux tune will come to mind. For me it was “Tougher than the Rest.”
Rest in Peace Wyoming cowboy. We miss you very, very much.
Our office has coupled the “Tribute to Chris LeDoux” DVD with a new one chronicling the making of the bronze. If you are interested in obtaining the collector’s set contact us or call the Chris LeDoux Memorial Foundation directly at: 307-738-2322.
Cowboy Catch-Up
The big news so far this summer rodeo season, in terms of the men who carry on smartly for Team Wyoming, is injury. Jason Miller, the 2007 world champion steer wrestler, broke a bone in his shoulder and suffered a partial tear of a rotator cuff when a steer stopped short on him during a run at Cody. Jason is taking six weeks off and has been told by Justin Medicine’s Dr. Tandy Freeman not to haze either if he expects to heal enough to compete again this year. Miller has a good attitude and is keeping his chin up. “Things could be a lot worse. Six weeks or six months isn't the end of the world for me. I will back at them sooner or later and with a vengeance,” Miller wrote me in an email. Jason will have Dr. Freeman’s crew check things over early at Cheyenne Frontier Days and if the outcome is positive he’ll return to action for CFD. If not, surgery would be the appropriate course to follow.
Kanin Asay, who won the bull riding at the national finals last December, is nursing a bad tear to his right palm sustained when stepped on in a chute a few weeks ago in Canada. The Powell, Wyoming bull rider feels ready to go for Cowboy Christmas starting in a few days and running through the Fourth of July – actually July 5 at the Xtreme Bulls event in Cody. The draws and dates over much of Cowboy Christmas aren’t pleasing to Asay and he, Bobby Welsh and Chance Smart won’t be able to let their seats cool on the plane they’ve chartered to make a run at the Top 15.
The lone Team Wyoming player in that coveted Top 15 headed into Cowboy Christmas is Mills, Wyoming man Kelly Timberman. The 2004 world champion bareback rider is in the 13th spot and ready to make his move upward.
Showing posts with label Michael Thomas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Thomas. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
A Good Ride
Tom Parker went to high school rodeos in Wyoming with Chris LeDoux. Parker hailed from Lander and Chris competed out of Cheyenne. Tom was later called to military service and chose college afterward. Now he is the highly-regarded rodeo coach at Casper College. Among his charges in the last decade has been Chris’ son, Beau. “Chris would come out whenever he wasn’t on the road. He was very helpful,” said Parker. Family was everything to Chris LeDoux.
But in those early days all that mattered was riding bareback horses. He had a vast reservoir of “try.” He listened to the older riders and adapted his occasionally out-of-control style accordingly. Chris’ power was in his persistence…and guts. And you could see it all in his face. “I did everything I could to match that trademark grimace,” artist Mike Thomas told me this week. The Buffalo, Wyoming sculptor’s “Good Ride Cowboy” is being created in a bigger-than-life bronze statue that is now in the hands of the capable Hall family and their valued employees at Caleco (kah-LEE-ko) Foundry in Cody.
Our capable cameraman and editor, Mike McCrimmon, joined me at Caleco last Thursday evening to catch up on the LeDoux bronze progress. Let us share our findings with you here:
We’ll be visiting with Mike Thomas in his Buffalo studio in the near future and will return with an update in short order.
On this day we remember with sadness the loss of Chris LeDoux five years ago. There is anticipation too. Seeing that statue unveiled in Kaycee on land Chris and Peggy own will be very, very special. One of their boys used a pair of Chris’ boots to create prints in the still wet cement of the walk that leads to the statue. The prints fade and finally disappear at the statue base. He is still with us. Just listen to the wind.
But in those early days all that mattered was riding bareback horses. He had a vast reservoir of “try.” He listened to the older riders and adapted his occasionally out-of-control style accordingly. Chris’ power was in his persistence…and guts. And you could see it all in his face. “I did everything I could to match that trademark grimace,” artist Mike Thomas told me this week. The Buffalo, Wyoming sculptor’s “Good Ride Cowboy” is being created in a bigger-than-life bronze statue that is now in the hands of the capable Hall family and their valued employees at Caleco (kah-LEE-ko) Foundry in Cody.
Our capable cameraman and editor, Mike McCrimmon, joined me at Caleco last Thursday evening to catch up on the LeDoux bronze progress. Let us share our findings with you here:
We’ll be visiting with Mike Thomas in his Buffalo studio in the near future and will return with an update in short order.
On this day we remember with sadness the loss of Chris LeDoux five years ago. There is anticipation too. Seeing that statue unveiled in Kaycee on land Chris and Peggy own will be very, very special. One of their boys used a pair of Chris’ boots to create prints in the still wet cement of the walk that leads to the statue. The prints fade and finally disappear at the statue base. He is still with us. Just listen to the wind.
Monday, March 8, 2010
The Legacy of LeDoux
By Chuck Coon
Tomorrow will mark the fifth anniversary of Chris LeDoux’ passing. He represented the face, and spirit, of Wyoming to many thousands of people across our land and on many foreign soils. “His music helped me make it through my tour in Desert Storm in 91-92,” writes Craig Young in a Facebook entry. The social media outlet was originated as a tribute to Ledoux by Scott Sterrett of Wild Bunch Productions in Casper six months ago.
There are now more than 20,800 fans on the Chris Ledoux Tribute Rodeo Facebook site sharing personal memories of LeDoux. A man and his wife measure their driving trips by how many Chris LeDoux CDs they will listen to along the route. A married couple writes that their first date was a Chris LeDoux concert. One young man was buying a box set of LeDoux music in Nashville when the clerk told him of Chris’ death that day. “I broke down and cried in the Ernest Tubb Record Shop,” he writes.
Sterrett tells us that Garth Brooks has signed on to the Facebook site devoted to Chris LeDoux’s memory. I can tell you Garth did not hide his tears standing in the LeDoux kitchen near Kaycee, Wyoming where family and friends were gathered for a private memorial five years ago.
We spoke with Chris a few times. He was always willing to help a good cause whether promoting the move of the College National Finals Rodeo to Casper or offering his home country as a setting for public service announcements marking the Wyoming Centennial in 1990. He may have come to Wyoming from Texas, but Chris LeDoux was Wyoming through and through.
A cold day in 1965 offered a shivery Cheyenne welcome to the LeDoux clan. “I think it was ten below the first day we got here,” recalled Chris. “It was a little hard to get used to. But spring came and it was wonderful.” And there was a very large rodeo arena just a half-mile down the road from the family residence.
Chris LeDoux had already won a buckle at a rodeo in Texas and now he was within spittin’ distance of the chutes where all of the greatest champions in the world had competed. By 1968 LeDoux entered Cheyenne Frontier Days and the next year he placed in the bareback riding on a horse called “Chicken Fry.” He came back to the ready area and heard “Good Ride Chris” from several of his rodeo heroes. “I didn’t think they even knew my name. It was kind of like I was born right there in Cheyenne,” remembered LeDoux.
Five years later Chris came into the Cheyenne Sunday Finals ahead by ten points and felt that champion’s buckle within reach. It was not to be. Joe Alexander (The Great) spurred a bareback riding record score of 93 that day – a mark that would stay atop the pro rodeo record books for decades. LeDoux was nudged out by one point.
It was a blow for Chris LeDoux but he moved on and would rise to the world championship in bareback riding in 1976. He had fallen in love with a Wyoming girl and he was writing lyrics to match his guitar picking ever since his Mom, Bonnie, had bought him a Harmony guitar at Jay’s Music Store in Cheyenne.
People would come from long distances to buy tapes of Chris LeDoux’s music on sale under the grandstands at the Cheyenne rodeo. After those “worn-out tapes” made a line in a Garth Brooks song, Chris LeDoux with his band Western Underground would become hugely successful. Their appearances at the Cheyenne Frontier Days night shows in the 1990s were raucous, rowdy, and loud affairs. No one sat down for long except when Chris settled a little to sing a few of his favorites. Ed Bruce wrote a song that was a staple of LeDoux’ live shows for rodeo crowds in the West. We are pleased and grateful to offer you it – in its entirety – here:
While we miss him and wish he was still up there giving everything for the brand, we have Chris’ music and soon we’ll have a wonderful town park in Kaycee built on two lots the LeDoux family had purchased in the heart of the tiny downtown.
Sculptor D. Michael Thomas of Buffalo, WY is going to be on hand for a bronze dedication, June 19. Western Underground will perform after the bronze is unveiled. There aren’t many motel rooms in Kaycee so if you are planning to attend look at staying in Casper or Buffalo. You can sure check Kaycee but those rooms will be taken very soon.
The event will be laid back and informal. We’ll visit with one another and reminisce. Emcee Bob Price of KTWO Radio in Casper is scheduled to keep us informed leading up to the showing of Thomas’ bronze “Good Ride Cowboy.” It’s Chris in the midst of his world championship ride with a guitar as a base. The size is life-and-a-half. Our video man Mike McCrimmon and I got a look at progress last week at the Caleco Foundry in Cody. We’ll give you an update here tomorrow.
When I die you can bury me beneath these western skies.
Thanks Pard.
Tomorrow will mark the fifth anniversary of Chris LeDoux’ passing. He represented the face, and spirit, of Wyoming to many thousands of people across our land and on many foreign soils. “His music helped me make it through my tour in Desert Storm in 91-92,” writes Craig Young in a Facebook entry. The social media outlet was originated as a tribute to Ledoux by Scott Sterrett of Wild Bunch Productions in Casper six months ago.
There are now more than 20,800 fans on the Chris Ledoux Tribute Rodeo Facebook site sharing personal memories of LeDoux. A man and his wife measure their driving trips by how many Chris LeDoux CDs they will listen to along the route. A married couple writes that their first date was a Chris LeDoux concert. One young man was buying a box set of LeDoux music in Nashville when the clerk told him of Chris’ death that day. “I broke down and cried in the Ernest Tubb Record Shop,” he writes.
Sterrett tells us that Garth Brooks has signed on to the Facebook site devoted to Chris LeDoux’s memory. I can tell you Garth did not hide his tears standing in the LeDoux kitchen near Kaycee, Wyoming where family and friends were gathered for a private memorial five years ago.
We spoke with Chris a few times. He was always willing to help a good cause whether promoting the move of the College National Finals Rodeo to Casper or offering his home country as a setting for public service announcements marking the Wyoming Centennial in 1990. He may have come to Wyoming from Texas, but Chris LeDoux was Wyoming through and through.
A cold day in 1965 offered a shivery Cheyenne welcome to the LeDoux clan. “I think it was ten below the first day we got here,” recalled Chris. “It was a little hard to get used to. But spring came and it was wonderful.” And there was a very large rodeo arena just a half-mile down the road from the family residence.
Chris LeDoux had already won a buckle at a rodeo in Texas and now he was within spittin’ distance of the chutes where all of the greatest champions in the world had competed. By 1968 LeDoux entered Cheyenne Frontier Days and the next year he placed in the bareback riding on a horse called “Chicken Fry.” He came back to the ready area and heard “Good Ride Chris” from several of his rodeo heroes. “I didn’t think they even knew my name. It was kind of like I was born right there in Cheyenne,” remembered LeDoux.
Five years later Chris came into the Cheyenne Sunday Finals ahead by ten points and felt that champion’s buckle within reach. It was not to be. Joe Alexander (The Great) spurred a bareback riding record score of 93 that day – a mark that would stay atop the pro rodeo record books for decades. LeDoux was nudged out by one point.
It was a blow for Chris LeDoux but he moved on and would rise to the world championship in bareback riding in 1976. He had fallen in love with a Wyoming girl and he was writing lyrics to match his guitar picking ever since his Mom, Bonnie, had bought him a Harmony guitar at Jay’s Music Store in Cheyenne.
People would come from long distances to buy tapes of Chris LeDoux’s music on sale under the grandstands at the Cheyenne rodeo. After those “worn-out tapes” made a line in a Garth Brooks song, Chris LeDoux with his band Western Underground would become hugely successful. Their appearances at the Cheyenne Frontier Days night shows in the 1990s were raucous, rowdy, and loud affairs. No one sat down for long except when Chris settled a little to sing a few of his favorites. Ed Bruce wrote a song that was a staple of LeDoux’ live shows for rodeo crowds in the West. We are pleased and grateful to offer you it – in its entirety – here:
While we miss him and wish he was still up there giving everything for the brand, we have Chris’ music and soon we’ll have a wonderful town park in Kaycee built on two lots the LeDoux family had purchased in the heart of the tiny downtown.
Sculptor D. Michael Thomas of Buffalo, WY is going to be on hand for a bronze dedication, June 19. Western Underground will perform after the bronze is unveiled. There aren’t many motel rooms in Kaycee so if you are planning to attend look at staying in Casper or Buffalo. You can sure check Kaycee but those rooms will be taken very soon.
The event will be laid back and informal. We’ll visit with one another and reminisce. Emcee Bob Price of KTWO Radio in Casper is scheduled to keep us informed leading up to the showing of Thomas’ bronze “Good Ride Cowboy.” It’s Chris in the midst of his world championship ride with a guitar as a base. The size is life-and-a-half. Our video man Mike McCrimmon and I got a look at progress last week at the Caleco Foundry in Cody. We’ll give you an update here tomorrow. When I die you can bury me beneath these western skies.
Yippie Yi!
Thanks Pard.
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