Biography
Born in 1950 as Bruce Douglas Mitchell, the Nevada native who would later earn fame as Waddie Mitchell spent his earliest years on a ranch near the Ruby Mountains south of Elko. Without electricity or reliable broadcast signals, the household turned to generations-old Western stories and songs for evening entertainment, and young Mitchell absorbed every tale from his father and the ranch hands. At sixteen he began working full time as a cowboy; in his late teens he enlisted in the Army and was posted to Fort Carson, Colorado, where he broke and trained horses for the Cavalry. There he acquired the nickname Waddie, an old term for a cowboy.
Once discharged, Mitchell returned to Nevada, married, and raised five children while continuing to work on ranches and quietly harboring the ambition to own land of his own. His recitations of cowboy life and the fading traditions of the American West soon earned him a local following. Realizing he belonged to a larger circle of writers preserving the oral heritage of the range, he helped launch and performed at the inaugural Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering in 1985. The event drew more than two thousand listeners, became an annual fixture, and prompted Mitchell to take his poetry on the road across the Southwest, where the readings proved more lucrative than ranch labor.
A guest spot on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson marked his national breakthrough; though he initially declined, having never watched the program and knowing nothing about its host, he was convinced to appear and ultimately returned for three additional performances. Warner Western, the country’s Western-music imprint under Warner Bros. Records, signed him in 1992. His debut, Lone Driftin’ Rider, combined classic tales with original poems backed by music and drew strong critical notice. Two further Warner Western releases followed: Buckaroo Poet in 1993 and the live album The Bard & the Balladeer: Live from Cowtown in 1994. When the label was shuttered in 1997, Mitchell moved to Shanachie Records, issuing Live in 1998, A Prairie Portrait in 2000, and That No Quit Attitude in 2002—the title song of the last written for the Cultural Olympiad tied to that year’s Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
By then an award-winning poet and published author, Mitchell continued to balance literary work with ranch duties, the former finally allowing him to purchase the Ruby Mountains spread he had long envisioned. In 2005 he began recording with Western Jubilee Recording Company; the label reissued Live that year and brought out Sweat Equity in 2014. Mitchell’s 2017 collection, Cohorts & Collaborators: Songs Written with Waddie, gathered pieces created with fellow Western artists including Sons and Brothers, Jon Chandler, Pipp Gillette, and Brenn Hill.
Once discharged, Mitchell returned to Nevada, married, and raised five children while continuing to work on ranches and quietly harboring the ambition to own land of his own. His recitations of cowboy life and the fading traditions of the American West soon earned him a local following. Realizing he belonged to a larger circle of writers preserving the oral heritage of the range, he helped launch and performed at the inaugural Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering in 1985. The event drew more than two thousand listeners, became an annual fixture, and prompted Mitchell to take his poetry on the road across the Southwest, where the readings proved more lucrative than ranch labor.
A guest spot on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson marked his national breakthrough; though he initially declined, having never watched the program and knowing nothing about its host, he was convinced to appear and ultimately returned for three additional performances. Warner Western, the country’s Western-music imprint under Warner Bros. Records, signed him in 1992. His debut, Lone Driftin’ Rider, combined classic tales with original poems backed by music and drew strong critical notice. Two further Warner Western releases followed: Buckaroo Poet in 1993 and the live album The Bard & the Balladeer: Live from Cowtown in 1994. When the label was shuttered in 1997, Mitchell moved to Shanachie Records, issuing Live in 1998, A Prairie Portrait in 2000, and That No Quit Attitude in 2002—the title song of the last written for the Cultural Olympiad tied to that year’s Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
By then an award-winning poet and published author, Mitchell continued to balance literary work with ranch duties, the former finally allowing him to purchase the Ruby Mountains spread he had long envisioned. In 2005 he began recording with Western Jubilee Recording Company; the label reissued Live that year and brought out Sweat Equity in 2014. Mitchell’s 2017 collection, Cohorts & Collaborators: Songs Written with Waddie, gathered pieces created with fellow Western artists including Sons and Brothers, Jon Chandler, Pipp Gillette, and Brenn Hill.
Albums
