High temps, old west costumes, Mexican vaqueros, and three fiddling sisters all rolled into town today for the City of Santa Clarita’s Cowboy Festival at Melody Ranch in Placerita Canyon.

Hundreds of people were walking the dirt streets of Melody Ranch -the setting for several motion pictures and television series about the old west- by noon. Temperatures were in the 90s and the dusty street sometimes kicked sand up in people’s eyes, but that didn’t matter, it was still a lot of fun.

It was my first time attending the event since way back in the 1990s, and I had forgotten how cool it was. You don’t even have to be a died-in-the-wool cowboy to appreciate this celebration of western culture, art, and skills.

I stopped in on a few music events. One woman had traveled all the way from Denver to sing songs of the west while strumming her banjo inside a music hall that looked straight out of the 1800s.

Down the street, three young men crooned “Don’t Fence Me In” with banjos, fiddles and guitars as the crowd bobbed their heads, sang along and fanned themselves.

And in the biggest venue at the show under a large white tent, three sisters named the Quebe sisters thrilled the audience with their fiddle playing. Most of the songs were about lost love, old time religion -that sort of thing- but they also played some wicked instrumental fiddle music (think Devil Went Down to Geogria.)

It was obvious many participants at the festival had planned for a long time on what to wear. I especially enjoyed seeing how some of the women dressed. If those costumes were an accurate representation of how women of high-society dressed back in the day, men I think we are missing out today! Some of the women dressed in old-time clothes were simply stunning.

As for the men- well, I’m not convinced they were playing dress-up at all. Whether it was the old man who’s face had endured 10,000 hot sunny days on a ranch somewhere or the gigantic cowboy wearing shitkickers and real round spikey things (to hit the horse with I think), these men looked and acted the part. Some had big handlebar mustaches, others had hands so weathered one wondered how they could be so dexterous when handling a lasso. These were the kind of salt-of-the-earth men you’d see in an advertisement for Ford trucks, men who hold contempt for girly-men like me who sit behind computers all day.

One cowboy stood at least 7′7 feet tall, and I was quite shocked. “They must grow ‘em big down on the ranch,” I thought, then realized he was on stilts.

My favorite part of today’s performances was Benito “Benny” Martinez and his trick pony. Martinez and his group talked a bit about the history of the Mexican Cowboys or Vaqueros, and it was great to see an element of Mexican culture that is so similar yet distinct from our’s. Then Benny and his horse did several tricks. Benny spun a lasso around the calm horse, made the horse lie down, rear up, and even do sort of a two step with Martinez as he walked around.

This being an event in the SCV, one can’t escape the scores and scores and scores of vendors at the festival, but people seemed to enjoy the selection of fine western wear and lots and lots and lots of ten gallon hats.

Overall, it was a great time, and I encourage you to go tomorrow. I hear there’s three brothers who are going to play and are absolutely awesome with the fiddle.

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