Almeda Bradshaw

“I had to move EAST to find the WEST. Though raised a town girl on the Oregon coast, all I wanted was to be a cowgirl. I spent hours riding the ranges of my imaginations in a swing set saddle, and when I was tall enough, I threw a leg up on my family’s trusty propane tank and rode off into many a sunset.”

BEGINNINGS

When her parents moved the family from town to the country, Almeda began living her dream of horses, cows and rural ranch life. She raised her family in north central Montana, while breeding and showing performance horses, running 150 mother cows and operating a seed plant/feed business. She and her husband, former Marlboro Man, Merritt Bradshaw, now live on the Yellowstone River in Huntley, Montana, where they collect western memorabilia, he trains rope horses and she manages everything else, including a busy music and performance life! A multi-instrumentalist, Almeda studied cello and piano through college, has a BA in ELEMENTARY EDUCATION and is self-taught on the guitar, mandolin, and various other stringed instruments. She taught students of all ages to play strings from her former private studio and retail store, A Room for Music, in Big Sandy, MT.

INFLUENCES

Almeda grew up listening to her dad’s LP collection of big bands, the Boston Pops, classical orchestra music and until an eye-popping epiphany happened while watching the Beatles’ American debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. Though classically trained through college on piano and cello, her musical alter-ego was fed through the guitar which she taught herself to play at age thirteen. It was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Circle” album that turned her on to the flatpicking style of Mother Maybelle Carter. Though covers of Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac and others from the 60s and 70s took over her teenage years, Almeda later returned to the heart of her musical soul in Western Americana/Roots Music, an eclectic mix of cowboy, bluegrass, old-time, folk and spirituals. There she remains.

EXPERIENCE

Almeda has written poetry, journals and songs since her teen years and has been performing at cowboy gatherings throughout the west for over two decades. She has produced the following original works:

• VOICES FROM THE RANGE: Almeda Sings the Poetry of Rhoda Sivell (2010)
• A WAY OF HEART: The Big Sandy Years (2010)
• LOVERS, WIVES & MOTHERS: A Western Woman’s Voice (2015)
• TRIBUTE (2017)
• BRISKLY VENTURE, BRISLKY ROAM: The Ballad of Yellowstone Kelly (2018)
• IF I HAD A HORSE (2021)

As a former member of Humanities Montana, Almeda presented a series of programs on the history of country and western music that included:

• THE IMPORTANCE OF HER VOICE: Song in the Lives of Mountain Women
• INTO THE SUNSET: The Forgotten Cowgirl Singers
• HOMES & HONKYTONKS: Post-WWII Women in Country Music
• SONGS OF THE COWBOY: Romance & Reality

RECOGNITION (2009-present)
2022 IWMA ALBUM OF THE YEAR NOMINATION – If I Had a Horse
2018 AWA ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR NOMINATION
2017 WMA SONG OF THE YEAR NOMINATION – Larry Dever Did
2017 #2 TOP TEN SONGS – Cowboy from TRIBUTE
2017 #4 TOP TEN SONGS – Larry Dever Did from TRIBUTE
2017 #18 ALBUM – WMA CHART Lovers, Wives & Mothers (Spring quarter)
2017 AWA ALBUM OF THE YEAR NOMINATION – Lovers, Wives & Mothers
2017 #10 ALBUM – WMA CHART Lovers, Wives & Mothers (Winter quarter)
2017 #10 TOP TEN SONGS – WMA CHART Somewhere in the Rubies (Winter Quarter)
2016 WMA SONG OF THE YEAR NOMINATION – Heavenly Here with You
2016 #2 ALBUM – WMA CHART Lovers, Wives & Mothers (Spring & Summer quarters)
2016 #10 ALBUM – WMA CHART Lovers, Wives & Mothers (Fall quarter)
2016 #2 TOP TEN SONGS – WMA CHART Heavenly Here with You (Spring quarter)
2016 #6 TOP TEN SONGS – WMA CHART Colors in the Rain (Spring quarter)
2016 #3 TOP TEN SONGS – WMA CHART Somewhere in the Rubies (Summer quarter)
2016 #5 TOP TEN SONGS – WMA CHART Heavenly Here with You (Summer quarter)
2016 WW of A SPUR AWARD NOMINATION – WESTERN WRITERS of AMERICA, Song of the Year – Parker Eyes of Blues.
2016 COWBOY IDOL WINNER – COLUMBIA RIVER COWBOY GATHERING, Kennewick, WA
2015 PROFESSIONAL DIVISION CHAMPION – WMA WESTERN WORDSMITH CHAPTER Poetry Jackpot
2012 AWA POETRY ALBUM NOMINATION – A Way of Heart: The Big Sandy Years – Academy of Western Artists Cowboy Poetry Album of the Year
2011 Voices from The Range – #15 on the Western Music Association chart of Top 20 Western Albums
2011 RISING STAR FINALIST – Kamloops Cowboy Festival, Kamloops, BC
2011 2ND PLACE SERIOUS POET- National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo, Kanab, UT
2010 PEOPLE’S CHOICE MUSICIAN – Lee Earl Memorial Cowboy Gathering, Lewiston, ID
2010 Voices from The Range – Spent seven months on Joe Baker’s Back-forty Bunkhouse chart of Top 20 Western Albums
2010 BEST OF 2010 – Song The Range Call made Stan Howe’s Best of 2010 Montana Public Radio’s Bunkhouse & Honkytonk Folk Show
2009 NCPR ROOKIE – Made the finals in 3 of 4 events and placed in the money in Serious Reciting – National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo, Montrose, CO