Scofield's Cowboy Campfire

Old West Trio

  The Old West Trio is based in the foothills of Northern California’s gold country. Members Steve Ide (R), Leslie Ide (C), and Steve Johnson (L) perform traditional Western standards, cowboy ballads of every era, and yodeling tunes. They are members of the Western Music Association and co-founders of Scofield's Cowboy Campfire. The Old West Trio has performed from California to Montana, including the CM Russell Museum in Great Falls and the historic Silver Dollar Saloon in Jackson Hole. They've been featured radio guests on the Horsemen's Radio Weekly, Chronicle of the Old West, KVMR Backroads, and the Cowboy Music Roundup.

Photos by Elenore Caputo

Jim and Karen Ross

Jim is a third generation rancher, raised in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California. He started cowboying for wages when he was 12 years old, and later he left home and buckaroo'd in the Great Basin, near Plush, Oregon. The bunkhouse had old cowboy poems pasted on the walls, and Jim spent the evenings swatting mosquitoes, playing cards with the Irish haying crew, and learning some of the old classics. A few years ago, with urban sprawl claiming a lot of the good ground and his kids grown and gone, Jim sold the home place and moved to Jamestown where he and Karen are putting together a little spread of their own.

Karen, a silversmith, has been interested in poetry for many years, but very seldom perfomed in public. She was well received at the 2004 Monterey Cowboy poetry and music festival with her reciting of "Rinder-cella," made famous by Alice Hancock. Karen seemed quite at ease on the stage and fit in with the pros. We are happy to have Jim and Karen returning to the Red Mule Ranch.