Don Edwards (cowboy singer)

Don Edwards was an American cowboy singer, guitarist, and recording artist who specialized in Western music. Two of his albums, Guitars & Saddle Songs and Songs of the Cowboy, are included in the Folklore Archives of the Library of Congress.
Edwards released more than a dozen solo albums from 1980 through 2010, as well as a greatest hits collection. He also recorded the album High Lonesome Cowboy with Peter Rowan, Tony Rice, and Norman Blake, three leading bluegrass musicians.

Biography

Edwards was born in Boonton, New Jersey, on March 20, 1939. He left home at the age of 16 to work on Texas oil fields and experience the western life. He made his professional debut in 1961 after he was hired as a singer, actor, and stuntman at the newly opened Six Flags Over Texas. He worked there for five years before moving to Nashville to seek a recording contract. In 1993, he appeared on Nanci Griffith's Grammy Award-winning album Other Voices, Other Rooms on which he accompanied Griffith on a Michael Burton song entitled "Night Rider's Lament".
In 2005, Edwards was inducted into the Western Music Association Hall of Fame.
Edwards died on October 23, 2022, at the age of 83.

In popular culture

Edwards played the character Smokey in Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer. Edwards also performed the song "Coyotes" that plays during the final minutes of the documentary Grizzly Man.

Discography

1980 Happy Cowboy
1990 Desert Nights and Cowtown Blues
1991 Chant of the Wanderer
1992 Songs of the Trail
1993 Goin' Back To Texas
1994 The Bard and the Balladeer: Live from Cowtown
1996 West Of Yesterday
1997 Saddle Songs
1998 Best Of Don Edwards
1998 My Hero, Gene Autry: A Tribute
2000 Prairie Portrait
2001 On the Trail
2001 Kin To The Wind: Memories Of Martin Robbins
2004 Last Of The Troubadours: Saddle Songs Vol. 2
2004 High Lonesome Cowboy
2006 Moonlight & Skies
2009 Heaven on Horseback
2010 American
2013 ''Just Me and My Guitar''