Cowboy Jim Garling

  Jim Garling can't change the cattle market, but his music can sure enough make you take your mind off of it.
   Boots tap, hands clap, and grins grow like new spring grass when the native Oklahoman begins to play. If it's live music you're seeking for your event, there are few performers who bring more life to a room than the talented, personable Jim Garling of Guthrie, Oklahoma.
     Jim loves reaching into the past not to imitate Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, the Sons of the Pioneers or Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, but to combine their sounds for just the right mix of old-style, acoustic western cowboy music and western swing.
     With guitar strap on shoulder, pick in hand and a bushy mustache bordering that genuine smile, he'll bring you and yours cowboy-era music, classics from Saturday matinee silver screen heroes, and some favorites tunes from contemporary artists who reflect on the cowboy life. In fact, Jim has recorded three CDs, reflecting each of those very styles in addition to one cowboy gospel CD.     Ask yourself the following...How would you like to bring someone to your gathering who has entertained at: The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City; the Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival at Guthrie, OK; Western Heritage Days--Tom Mix Festival, Dewey, Oklahoma; Cherokee Strip Celebration, Perry, Oklahoma; Oklahoma History Center, Oklahoma City; Pawnee Bill Museum, Wild West Show, Pawnee, Oklahoma; Chisholm Trail Museum, Kingfisher, OK; Kolache Festival, Prague, OK; Cheyenne Cowboy Symposium, Cheyenne, Wyoming; Western Music Association Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico (Jim is past President of the Oklahoma Chapter of the WMA);  and the Gene Autry Oklahoma Film & Music Festival, Gene Autry, Oklahoma.
    And you can rest assured, audiences young and old enjoy Jim's incredible vocal style, his remarkable and long-proven guitar skills and the little dose of short histories and interesting anecdotes he gladly shares about the songs he sings.
    Jim doesn't just talk about the past, which includes his great grandfather making the land run in 1889, and the family settling for generations around Norman. He takes listeners back to those days of pioneers. Jim's a neighbor, whether you live by him, or make your home 500 miles away.  Everyone soon feels like they've known him for years, not hours.
     Several Oklahoma schools, libraries and museum have selected Jim to do programs that incorporate western cowboy music and the history of the State of Oklahoma and traditions of our country.  He is continually promoting and performing cowboy/western music to preserve it for generations to come.
     So, if you are wanting to celebrate the present or maybe escape it for a just a little while, give Jim Garling a call.  Most likely, after calling him one time, you'll be getting in touch with him for future events as well     So, book right now to secure Jim Garling for your upcoming gathering!

                                    (Bio contributed by Bryan Painter)