| As a second-generation farrier, Andy Nelson has the experience and the talents and humor to bring authenticity and entertainment to an audience. Raised in Oakley, Idaho, Andy traveled the Great Basin of southern Idaho, northern Utah and northern Nevada with his father on farrier jobs, from the time he was a child until he went off to college. While in college at Utah State University, he continued to shoe horses for the USU Horsemanship Program while studying in the Pre-Vet curriculum. He also spent many years working as a hand on a southern Idaho ranch, caring for cattle, from calving through selling and helped with the ranch's hay operation. Now Andy lives in Pinedale, Wyoming, where among other things, he and his wife Jaclyn raise horses and children.
Singer and songwriter Curly Musgrave has said this of Andy, "I'm intrigued and delighted by his connection to his material and audiences and how he puts just the right material to just the right audience. I've never seen him fail to engage a crowd." Margo Metegrano, editor of CowboyPoetry.com, comments, "Andy Nelson has extraordinary stage appeal. He wins over a crowd immediately with his hilarious tales and physical humor, and he's a master at keeping up the pace throughout a performance."
In 2006, Andy Nelson was named the Western Music Association's "Male Poet of the Year." He performs frequently throughout the U.S. and has been a featured performer at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, the Heber City Cowboy Poetry and Buckaroo Fair, the Colorado Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and other gatherings. He is a popular emcee as well, at shows across the West.
Andy Nelson has released three CDs of his poetry and humor, Full Nelson Shoeing, Land Mines, and Harvey's Moon, and has a book with an accompanying CD, RU Lazy 2? His work has been included in anthologies, including Wyoming's Cowboy Poets (Medallion Books) and The Big Roundup (New West Library) and on The BAR-D Roundup compilation CD (CowboyPoetry.com).
Andy and his farrier brother Jim co-host the "Clear Out West (C. O. W.) Radio" weekly syndicated radio show, and the brothers are in demand as announcers at regional rodeos. C.O.W. Radio, heard on 22 stations and the internet, spins the best of cowboy poetry and Western music, along with other regular features. The Nelson brothers were named "DJ's of the Year" by the Western Music Association and the Academy of Western Artists. |
