Gary & Jean Prescott

Ovalo, TX - Put two people together who love living, writing, and singing about the cowboy way of life and you have the perfect combination for making some of the best cowboy music around today. Those two people are Gary and Jean Prescott, who met at the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine, Texas, in 1993 and married a year later.

A native West Texan, Jean has made ranching and cowboy music her life, wearing her heritage “as comfortably as a broken-in pair of boots.” Gary draws inspiration from his youthful experience working cattle on a family ranch near Bryan, Texas.

            On stage they present a magical combination of rough and tough cowboy songs and lilting songs about the sweethearts who love those rugged cowboys.  From campfire to concert hall, the harmonies of Jean’s rich, sweet alto voice and Gary’s rugged authentic cowboy voice send their music straight to the heart.

            With numerous individual albums to their credit, Jean and Gary released their second duo CD, Satisfied Hearts, in 2017, which received the IWMA 2018 Western Album of the Year Award.  “The Pitchfork Greys,” a song from that CD, was named Traditional Western Song of the Year and also won the 2018 Spur Award from the Western Writers of America.

Jean was inducted into the National Multicultural Hall of Fame in 2021 and recently released her second gospel album simply entitled Joy—“a real toe tapping, hand clapping, shouting hallelujah album.  If it doesn’t bring a smile to your face and joy to your heart, nothing will.”

Based on their small ranch south of Abilene, Texas, multiple award-winning artists, Jean and Gary are dedicated to pursuing and preserving through music the western way of life they love.

Yvonne Hollenbeck

South Dakota ranch wife, Yvonne Hollenbeck, lives on a Clearfield area ranch where she and her husband, Glen Hollenbeck, raise Angus beef cattle and registered quarter horses. Hollenbeck writes and recites poetry about a lifetime as a rancher’s wife, whether she is helping outside with the livestock, putting up hay, paying the bills, or feeding a crew, and puts real life experiences (sometimes humorous) into her poetry, stories and weekly articles in the Tri-State Livestock News.

Sometimes referred to as the “Erma Bombeck” of Cowboy Poetry, Hollenbeck delights her audiences with both humorous and serious poetry, and has performed at nearly every major western entertainment venue in America and Canada, having been invited to the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering at Elko, Nevada, a record 22 times. Her writing takes a serious turn when she reflects on the hardships of her parents and ancestors.

Hollenbeck was a professional show-organist for large fairs and rodeos for a number of years and her husband, Glen was a top pickup man as well as competitor in calf roping and steer wrestling and this experience offered her yet more fuel for poetry. Both she and her husband, Glen, were inducted into the Casey Tibbs Hall of Fame in 2021 for their contributions to the rodeo community as well as agriculture in general.

Yvonne is currently on the South Dakota and Nebraska Humanities Rosters where her popular programs of Cowboy Poetry, as well as quilt related programs, are offered. Although a grandson is taking over the bulk of ranching duties, the Hollenbecks still live, work, and enjoy life in the wide open prairies of Dakota, and where Yvonne still writes poetry about that life.