Western Singer-Songwriter Mike Beck, August 27

Western singer and horseman Mike Beck will be returning to Tehachapi for an August 27 concert at Fiddlers Crossing. The critically acclaimed singer/songwriter, guitarist and horseman is a veteran performer who has toured with Western folk legends Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Ian Tyson. He has become well known on the Western music circuit for his soulful portrayal of the American West and unique guitar style. He first performed at Fiddlers Crossing back in 2010 , making a return visit in 2011, receiving standing ovations and calls for him to return.

Beck was born and raised in Monterey County, and picked up a guitar after a visit, at age 13, to the Monterey Pop Festival. Since that time, he has been composing and performing a wide array of folk, rock and Americana music, with a special love for ballads of the Old West and the cowboy way of life. Mike's songs reflect his life as a professional musician and a working cowboy in Montana and the Carmel Valley near Big Sur.

Mike Beck has performed in over six countries, and throughout the United States, and recently returned from performing and conducting horse clinics in Norway and Sweden. Two of Beck's songs were listed in the "13 Best Cowboy Songs of All Time" in the April 2009 issue of Western Horseman Magazine. ("In Old California" and "Don't Tell Me.") His song "Patrick" was listed as one of "The Top 15 Roadworthy Cowboy Songs" in the July 2008 issue of Cowboys & Indians Magazine. "Amanda Come Home" was featured on NPR's Weekend Edition, and is dedicated to all of the women who served in Iraq.

According to Ramblin' Jack Elliott, "Mike Beck plays the guitar like a Bird. His strings do things that mine could never do. They obey the slightest finger-touch commands like a fine Reining Horse."

The description is appropriate, considering Beck's career as a "Horse Whisperer"-type horse trainer. He began working as a cowboy on a remote Spanish Ranch in northern Nevada and honed his considerable skill as a horse trainer. While there, he learned of Bill and Tom Dorrance, whose pioneering work with horses in the Carmel Valley focused on getting the rider to see the world from the horse's point of view. This approach bonds the rider and horse, encouraging them to work as a team. Beck soon moved back to California to learn from the Dorrances.

Beck's work with horses adds authenticity to his music. He has four albums and hundreds of stories of horses, cowboys, musicians. Mike Beck will bring the Old West alive again when he returns to Tehachapi.

Fiddlers Crossing is at 206 East F Street at Robinson Street, in Downtown Tehachapi. Tickets may be purchased next door at Mountain Music, at Tehachapi Treasure Trove, Tehachapi Furniture in Old Town, and Lucky's Barbershop, or online through Fiddlerscrossing.com. Tickets to the concert are $20, and as always, coffee and goodies are included. The concert begins at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

On the horizon, Steve Spurgin, James Lee Stanley, C. Daniel Boling, Chris Proctor, Jeni and Billy.