Ken Overcast

Ken Overcast's musical path stays bound to his rancher's existence in northern Montana, where the daily hardships of genuine cowboy work supply the core material for his songs and poetry. Even after partnering with a Nashville producer, the resulting sound remains rooted in Montana. He launched the music publishing firm Bear Valley Music in 1993 and issued the album Silver & Gold that year; three years later the same album received a compact-disc release. In 1994 he created Bear Valley Records while beginning his work with Nashville producer Russ Ragsdale on the album Thinkin' Back, a partnership that lasted through the rest of the decade. The year 1997 brought several personal milestones: victory at the International Cowboy Yodeling Championship, a nomination for the Artistic Trailblazer Award, and a collaboration with daughter Karleen on the album Ken and Karlie. By 1998 he was contributing a humorous column called Meadow Muffins and later recorded selections from it for the 2001 release Montana Campfire. Additional honors arrived that same year in the form of a Country Gospel Music Guild nomination for Male Vocalist of the Year and a King Eagle Music Award nomination for career achievement. Further nominations followed in 1999 and 2000, among them a Grammy nod for Prairie Poetry, the Montana Governor's Award for the Arts, and the Western Music Association's Male Performer of the Year. He married his childhood sweetheart Dawn, and together they run a ranch on Lodge Creek. As a boy in Paradise Valley along the Milk River, Overcast attended a small country school that enrolled only four students.