Western Musicians & Cowboy Poets Performing in Lockhart
June 19-21, 2026We're bringing Matt Robertson, Pipp Gillette and Lloyd Wright, Sam Platts and the Windmill Hill Dance Band, John Moore, Dakota Robinson, and Rusty Phillips to downtown Lockhart, Texas June 19-21, 2026. Get tickets now - seats range from $20-35, with a weekend pass (up to 7 shows) for $98.
Matt Robertson
Matt Robertson has been writing and playing music for over 20 years, inspired by his life as a cowboy and horseman. His music tells stories of the American West and the people who live there. He has released several albums: Too Pretty for the Wagon (2026), Arizona (2024), Bronc Scholar (2022), The Dusty Ones (2022), Bronc Star (2019), Just Cowboyin' (2018), Makin' History (2017), and The Voice (2017).
Arizona was named 2024 Western/Cowboy Album by the Academy of Western Artists, and "The Letter" was named 2024 Western/Cowboy Song. Matt was also awarded 2024 Western/Cowboy Male Vocalist by the Academy. He has been a featured artist at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada; played the Ahern Hotel in Las Vegas as part of the Ahern Goes Country event; performed at the 2026 Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine; and travels extensively performing in the Mountain West. He performed at the Dusty Vaquero Days in Gillette, Wyoming in 2025 and will be there again in 2026.
Pipp Gillette and Lloyd Wright
Pipp Gillette plays traditional cowboy music on guitar, banjo, harmonica and bones. He lives and works on the family ranch near Lovelady, Texas, where his grandfather started raising cattle and cotton in 1912. He also operates the Camp Street Cafe in Crockett, Texas.
Pipp and his late brother Guy received the Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Traditional Western Album of 2011 and the 2013 Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Original Western Composition for their performance of the Waddie Mitchell song "Trade Off." Pipp's first solo CD, Singing Songs by Waddie and Pipp received the Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Traditional Western Album of 2016. His CD Pipp Gillette with Lloyd Wright was released fall 2018.
Cowboy Crossroads, episode 25 - Andy Hedges interviews Pipp Gillette (part 1)
Cowboy Crossroads, episode 26 - Andy Hedges interviews Pipp Gillette (part 2)
Lloyd Wright is known for his skills on the mountain dulcimer, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and bass.
He began playing the mountain dulcimer at age 12 in 1994 after he and his Texas family made a chance visit to the Ozark Folk Center and The Dulcimer Shoppe in Mountain View, Arkansas. It did not take long for the entire family to become hooked. Within the next twelve months, Lloyd was competing in his first mountain dulcimer competition in Glen Rose, Texas. He won first place in 1999 while still in high school, after taking second place in 1998. He won the National Mountain Dulcimer Contest championship in Winfield, Kansas in 2000 at the Walnut Valley Festival, and took second place recently in 2022.
He has led banjo workshops at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, and mandolin workshops at the Blue Ridge Old Time Music Week. His album with Pipp Gillette, called Pipp Gillette with Lloyd Wright, was released fall 2018. He has performed regularly with Pipp since then.
Lloyd puts on The Old Mill Music Festival in Kennard, Texas, where he hosts a wide array of artists every November, and is active in the Palestine Old Time Music and Dulcimer Festival each March (held in Palestine, Texas). He, his wife April, and their son Elijah are enthusiastic and well-loved performers in East Texas and beyond.
Sam Platts and the Windmill Hill Dance Band
Sam Platts is a singer, songwriter, and band leader focused on bringing traditional country music to modern audiences. Now based in Texas, Sam was raised in a small Wyoming town. He first stepped on the bus with a touring country act in his early 20s, and later played lead guitar for Wylie and the Wild West, which took him all over the country and world. After moving to Montana, Sam started his own band, which he led for many years, playing venues, festivals, and events throughout the region. During this time, he met his wife, Lilly, who became the group's fiddle player. Looking for a more robust music scene and a closer connection to traditional country music, the couple made the decision to move to central Texas. Since landing in the Lone Star State, they have built a strong presence, backed by a five-piece honky-tonk band. They split their time between playing venues and dance halls in the state, and traveling to Western music events throughout the country.
Sam's songwriting is inspired by his roots in the West, his family's history, rural community, Texas dance halls, Western Swing, and traditional country music. While his music is guided by these traditions, Sam has always been focused on creating something new, and connecting with modern audiences. The band performed at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada the past four years. Sam recorded his latest album — Right Where I Belong, which will be released in early 2026 — at Tommy Detamore's Cherry Ridge Studios in Floresville, Texas.
John Moore
Mandolinist, guitarist, and vocalist John Moore's musical performances have led him throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan, and into the studio doing radio and television commercials, movie soundtracks and countless sessions for other artists. He has appeared in film productions by, and done movie soundtracks for, Paramount Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, A&E Television Network, The Nashville Network and for the HBO Series Deadwood (in which he also appeared). He was nominated for a Grammy for his work in Rose Of Old Kentucky with Vince Gill and Byron Berline and has appeared on the covers of Flatpick Guitar magazine, Bluegrass Now and Bluegrass Unlimited. He has been the International Bluegrass Music Association's Instrumentalist of the Year 3 years in a row as a member of the award-winning band California.
John and his wife Erika also produced, filmed, and edited the films Keeping The Tradition Alive and The Legacy Lives On for the Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine, Texas.
John has spent 4 months per year for the last 30 years teaching equine sciences and horsemanship clinics throughout Europe, and has been a staff writer for British, Swedish and Finnish riding magazines. He currently lives on a small spread near Dove Creek, Colorado where he trains horses and hosts a series of Horses & Cattle educational courses, attended by equine students from around the world. He also teaches online mandolin, guitar and riding lessons, and day works with his family for local ranches since downsizing and selling their own cows a few years ago. In his spare time he guides elk, mule deer, audad, and sheep hunters in Colorado and Texas.
Dakota Robinson
Dakota Robinson is a cowboy poet from Texas. While working on ranches from Texas to Kansas, Wyoming, New Mexico, and back again, he has experienced firsthand the many challenges and rewards the lifestyle of a cowboy can bring. Inspired by the likes of Red Steagall, Ian Tyson, Baxter Black, and Waddie Mitchell, he soon started filling his solitary hours in the saddle with an internal narrative of prose and rhyme. The cattle, horses, and his wife were among the first victims of his early experimentation. Now a full-time farrier back in Texas, Dakota spends his days shoeing horses to support his poetry habit.
Dakota received the 2026 Buck Ramsey Scholarship from the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, which includes performance opportunities at the Gathering, and performed at the 2026 Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Bastrop, Texas.
Rusty Phillips
Cowboy poet Rusty Phillips is a native of Texas Hill Country, with ranching roots dating back to the Republic of Texas. Growing up with stories of the Great Depression and the 1950s drought, his heart dug roots deep in that hard Texas ground, always hoping for rain in the forecast, diesel in the tank, and a good stand of grama grass. After college, he left home with clothes, some basic tack, and a whole lot of try. Before he returned to Texas for good, he'd worked on cow outfits from Arizona to Montana. And poetry, and horses, had captured his heart. He now sells real estate to support a ranching habit he can't shake.
Rusty performed at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko in 2026.