Cowboy poet Red Steagall sits down for a one-on-one with Oklahoma cowboy artist Tyler Crow who, in 2016 at the age of 27, became the youngest artist to ever be inducted into the prestigious Cowboy Artists of America.
Red Stegall: I’m so proud to introduce you folks to a great Western artist and a great humanitarian, and his name is Tyler Crow. Tyler, I want the folks to know where you’re coming from, how you grew up, how you got interested in art and the Western way.
Tyler Crow: Yes, sir. I grew up in Southwest Oklahoma, and my family’s still up there, and I went to high school there in Apache. And fortunately, my grandparents were all right there, so I’ve just been blessed with a great family. My grandpa farmed and ran some wheat pasture cattle, and my other grandpa raised horses. Between them and then my dad building some bits and spurs, we were involved in some different things, that Western way of life.
Red Steagall, left, interviews cowboy artist Tyler Crow about his life as a cowboy and his art, of which Steagall has been a subject.
Red: Did you spend a lot of time on horseback?
Tyler: We always had a horse around, so I was fortunate to get to be on horseback. Like I said, I started working for my grandpa when I was 10 or 11, and I plowed a lot for him. And then during school, on the weekends, we’d help him work some cattle. I was involved with him in that. And my dad was fortunate to get to do some work for some guys there at the [Four] Sixes, and we got to meet Boots [O’Neal] and Monte Hollar and got to know them. And from there on, I was hooked, and I just think the world of those guys there.
Red: Young men, especially in our part of the world, want to be cowboys. Why do you think that is?
Tyler: Just for what it stands for. And just like you and my grandpas and my dad and Boots and Monte, they all have a lot of meaning behind them, and they just stand up for what’s right. And it has a lot of integrity behind it. Being able to do this for a living, I enjoy that way of life. [I’m] fortunate to get to go to those different places and see some different country that I might not have had the opportunity to get to otherwise. Each place has its own personality. When I’m fortunate enough to get to go to those places, it sure kind of strikes an arc where I’m ready to come back home and get started on something new.
Tyler Crow completed this charcoal drawing, titled "A Cowboy's Troubadour," to honor friend and cowboy poet Red Steagall.
Red: When you started painting, you didn’t want to paint anything else, did you?
Tyler: I knew exactly what I’d like to paint, and that was today’s cowboy. And I enjoy getting to meet those men and building a relationship and a friendship with them. And that makes it even more special, getting to come back home and paint a picture of them. Just the person that they are and the livestock and the horses that they’re riding—make it that much more special.
The Picture
The little frame house in the
cottonwood trees
Looks the same as when I was a kid.
I slept on the porch on those hot
summer night,
Because that’s what my grandfather did.
Grandpa was a cowboy, my hero and
friend,
And I thought he was twenty foot tall.
I dogged out his footsteps from
morning till night,
Then I went back to school in the fall.
He worked on the Matador when he
was young,
And the Four Sixes Panhandle branch.
He came back to Weatherford, married
Grandma,
And they bought this old hardscrabble
ranch.
Each day was a struggle they somehow
got by,
Tho’ the banker owned most of their
stock.
They raised Longhorn cows and a
houseful of kids
On mesquite brush and cedar and rock.
Excerpted from Ride For The Brand: The Poetry and Songs of Red Steagall (1993, Bunkhouse Press).
From our January 2025 issue.
Find more of Tyler Crow's art at his Facebook page.
Red Steagall is the Official Cowboy Poet of Texas. Find the full episode of Red Steagall Is Somewhere West of Wall Street, featuring the conversation with Tyler Crow, at watchrfdtv.com.
HEADER: No Room For Error by Tyler Crow (2022). Oil on canvas. 26 x 40 inches.