Wylie & The Wild West

Ropin’, wranglin’, writin’, recordin’. They go hand-in-hand for Gustafson, leader of the acclaimed Wylie & the Wild West. Billboard declared “When Wylie & the Wild West play, folks get up and dance!” From nightclubs to state fairs, bars to barns, it rings true. Wylie’s infectious western music gets the crowd moving every time.

August 31, 2009; 8:16 PM • by Valerie Catrow

Western music
Conrad, Montana

Listen

[audio:http://rvanews.net/folk_festival/2009/artists/BuckingHorseMoon.mp3|artists=Wylie & The Wild West|titles=Bucking Horse Moon from Bucking Horse Moon]

From The Brothers Burton

Scott says: New honest Americana music with occasional yodeling. For example, there’s a song called “Yodel Boogie” that is in fact a boogie with yodeling.

Taylor says: Oh wow! I forgot this was what country sounded like, and where is the autotune! Seriously great real country western music with glorious yodeling action in vast abundance. Also the voice of the Yahoo! yodel! A yodeler can do no wrong in my book.

Professional Bio

Five-thirty in the morning is not an hour generally claimed by musicians. While most singers and strummers are dozing on the bus or at the local Motel 6, there is one musician who is rising to face the day: world-class yodeler and Montana native Wylie Gustafson. Of course, there is a reason for his early waking: his cattle aren’t going to feed themselves. Despite his successful career as one of America’s most popular western entertainers, Wylie still gets up everyday and tends to the livestock.

Wylie was born and raised in Conrad, Montana where his dad was a rural veterinarian and rancher. That shiny buckle he wears wasn’t won on Ebay. Wylie is an accomplished cutting horse enthusiast who was the 2005 NCHA Western National Finals Champion.

Keeping his home base in Montana, Wylie has traveled the world over with his top-notch band, which now includes Ray Doyle on guitar and backing vocals, Scotty Wilburn on steel guitar and fiddle, and Dave Reynolds on drums. Wylie & The Wild West has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry over 50 times, and performed at prestigious venues from the Lincoln Center to the Houston Rodeo & Livestock Show, from the Kennedy Center to the Calgary Stampede. Wylie has earned an international reputation not only through his recordings, but also from his appearances at Japan’s Country Gold Festival, three Australian tours, and a seven-week residency at Euro Disney. It is Wylie’s “Ya-hoo-ooo!” that is heard in the famous Yahoo advertising campaign. Wylie and the group have been honored repeatedly by the Academy of Western Artists and the Western Music Association, receiving awards for the 2005 Group of the Year, 2004 and 2005 Yodeler of the Year, and 2006 Best Western Swing Album. Their music is in regular rotation on the world’s most-listened-to satellite radio station, Willie’s Place–XM Radio Channel 13. Wylie has a new instructional book and CD, How to Yodel: Lessons to Tickle Your Tonsils, and will conduct a family-friendly course entitled “Yodeling 101” at this year’s Richmond Folk Festival.

The secret of Wylie’s honest, soulful western music isn’t in any musical formulas or flashy gimmicks. By being his earnest, hardworking, down-to-earth self, Gustafson has become one of the most exciting and endearing performers in contemporary music – country, western, or otherwise. All of Wylie’s music is dashed off with a hardy dose of trail dust. For him, the ranch and the recording studio are inseparable. “The connection between ranching and my music is extremely close,” he says. “Most of my songs are born out of the environment where I live and punch cattle. When I write an upbeat song, I make sure it’s a song that a cowboy can dance to. When I write a more lyrical song, I make sure that a real cowboy will be able to relate to it somehow.”