A WAY OF HEART
THE BIG SANDY YEARS
Almeda also produced a poetry album in 2010 consisting of ten poems and four songs, all originals. Autobiographical, "A Way of Heart: The Big Sandy Years" was another cathartic project that facilitated her healing from domestic abuse.
A WAY OF HEART
Annie Lauri - Old Scottish Song
Fiddle and Guitar - Almeda
I attended my first cowboy poetry gathering after moving to Big Sandy, MT, in 1994. With encouragement from local poet Arnold Hokanson, I began performing my poetry & songs at small gatherings. I knew in my heart I had found the perfect place to develop as a performer. However, because I was not a "real" cowgirl as some would define her, I struggled with feelings of not belonging because I didn't have the "proper credentials" to be in the genre of cowboy poetry and western music.
TOWN GIRL TURNED COWGIRL
Fiddle & Guitar - Almeda
I wrote this fun song while in a particularly cocky mood regarding my "real cowgirl" complex.
SOME FOLKS
Turkey in the Straw - Traditional
Fiddle & Guitar - Almeda
One day, I came across a cowboy poet website that talked with some distain about the difference between real working cowboy poets and mere western entertainers. At that point, I'd had it with such nonsense.
MY FIRST HORSE
I Ride an Old Paint - Cowboy song
Guitar - Almeda
After sharing this poem in Joliet, MT, a woman came up to me and pointed to an old saddle decorating the stage. "That saddle," she said, "spent years cinched to a roll of woven wire fence. That was MY first horse!" We had a good laugh over that.
WILLY, THE WONDER HORSE
I doubt I will ever have as fine a time horseback as I did the summer of 2005 riding the Bear Paw Mountains working our cattle with my dear friends, Thelma Hansen and Chris Johnson, and competing in reined cow horse shows.
Willy now lives with my grandkids Naomi, Caitlyn, Crawford & Griffin Terry who I hope will each have their turn to ride this great horse.
A COWBOY MEMORY
Guitar - Almeda
I wrote the first version of this a long time ago, in 1978, as a broken-hearted cry- in-your-beer kind of song. I had spent that summer chasing a Canadian bull-dogger cowboy around the B.C. rodeo circuit until I finally realized he was more interested in rodeo than me. Years later, tired of singing it as such, I rewrote the song as an expression of true love.
PRAIRIE TREASURES
When we made plans to move to Big Sandy from the Flathead Valley, folks said it was not very pretty out there and I would miss the mountains and trees of western Montana. They were wrong. I found the sky and landscapes of eastern Montana absolutely beautiful.
THE HELPMATE
Home on the Range - Higley/Kelly
Guitar & Fiddle - Phil & Vivian Williams
Every ranch wife poet has her poem of what it's like to work with her husband. Here's one more.
THE GOOD OLD DAYS
Home Sweet Home - Bishop - Guitar.
Mandolin & Fiddle - Phil & Vivian Williams
After a long hard day of chores during which I thought a lot about what it must have been like to do the same work without the convenience of modern machines, I wrote this loosely rhymed verse on the irony of some nostalgic notions.
OLD WOMAN
My Love is But A Lassie - Traditional Scottish Song
Guitar & Fiddle - Phil and Vivian Williams
Some men just don't get it.
COLD AS CLAY
Guitar - Almeda
I wrote this bluegrass flavored song after Roger filed for divorce in 2007. It was his loss.
ATMOSPHERE
Violin - Britt Smith
This poem is a composite expression of the life of a pioneer woman driven mad by the wind & isolation of homestead life blended with my mother's marriage experience and my own.
HIDDEN DREAMS
Guitar - Almeda
I attended my first NCPG in Elko, NV, in 2009. I was in the Basque Hotel when I walked boldly up to Ian Tyson, stuck out my hand to introduce myself and told him I had never heard him, live or recorded, and was really excited to attend his concert. He gave me a look, as if not sure how to take me, and said, "Girl, you gotta get out more!" I would have told him why it had taken me so long to "get out," but he turned and walked away. I wrote this song on the drive home from Elko.
MY MONTANA MAN
Guitar & Fiddle
Phil & Vivian Williams
Haste to the Wedding
Traditional Irish Music
I wrote this during a difficult time in 2001 in answer to Proverbs 31, "A Wife of Noble Character." When Roger read it, he very grumpily told me it didn't sound like him. BINGO! This poem is now framed and sits on Merritt Bradshaw's dresser because Merritt is My Montana Man, truly God's gracious gift to me.
All poetry & songs are the original work of Almeda Terry.
All rights reserved. Produced by Almeda Terry.
M2B Music, Huntley, MT. 2010
Recorded, mixed & mastered by Chris Cunningham
Basecamp Recording Studio, Bozeman, MT.
Tracks recorded by Doug Jenkins, Havre, MT. 2008.
CD Production - Discmakers, Pennsauken, NJ.
Graphic Design - Rim Advertising, Billings, MT.
Color photos - Christine Johnson, Big Sandy, MT.
Black & White photos by my dad - Howard Monks. Bonners Ferry, ID.
THANK YOU to PHIL & VIVIAN WILLIAMS for the generous use of their guitar, fiddle & mandolin music!
Voyager Recordings Seattle. WA.
www. voyagerrecords.com
In memory of a marriage from August 22, 1991 until it ended November 27, 2007 in a shatter of glass.