I can recall attending Nebraska's Big Rodeo in Burwell as a kid. We used to go down and camp there and check out the rodeo and the rides. It was at the time, and I've heard still to this day, one of the best.

After attending one of the performances, we passed by a guy selling stuff out of the trunk of his car.  It was one of the riders who was trying to get a musical career going while riding on the rodeo circuit. It was Chris LeDoux.

A couple of decades go by. Chris LeDoux wins the Bareback Riding Championship in 1976 and goes on to have a musical career many know about. Cowboy music. Rodeo Music. We lost Chris in 2005 but his music and legacy live on, through his son Ned.

I've known Ned LeDoux for years. The first time I saw Ned he was one of the 2 drummers with Chris at a concert at the Sioux Falls Arena. I remember his cowboy hat pulled down so tight his ears stuck out. The minute I saw that, I liked him. Hat down and ready. For anything. Many know him a drummer with Dustin Evans and Good Times.

Fast forward a couple of years and Ned is popping up again. This time on his own, nursing a musical career the way a rancher may help a newborn calf nuzzle up to it's mom, Ned is coming into his own, his way, and like his Dad all in, 'Cowboy.' 

We talked with Ned Thursday morning. He was at home in northeast Kansas and talked about his new song and new EP. The first single is Forever A Cowboy. It's just like Ned described it, country. Cowboy Country. It's a song Ned says took 7 or 8 goes to get right and finish. The opening line, he works by the seasons, not a clock on the wall, borrowed from poetry Chris left behind.

When you listen to the music, you see Ned, you hear Ned,  but you can also hear, and feel the shadow of man Country Music and Rodeo for that matter miss to this day. Chris LeDoux. And we're looking forward to hearing more from Ned.

Forever A Cowboy. Buy it now. 


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