Mesquite, NV –

The 15th Annual Mesquite Western Roundup Begins tomorrow, Friday, February 25th at 7:00 pm. Presented by the Mesquite Arts Council, the event highlighting “Cowboy Poetry” will present some of the biggest regional and national names in the genre. The entertainment show will be doing three showings on the 25th at 7:00 pm and the 26th at 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm. The cowboys will take center stage at the Mesquite Community Theater, located at 150 N. Yucca Street.

Marleen Bussma, one of the organizers of the event, stated, “the show celebrates the classical cowboy entertainment like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.”

Bussma, a nationally well-known cowboy poet, resides in St. George but has been part of the Mesquite Western Poets for many years. She has won multiple national and regional awards for her work. The show features her along with Farrel Bott, Jim Parsons, Lee Kimberlin, and Russ Westwood. There will also be a musical performance by Saddle Strings from Northern Utah. MC Jeff Hoyt will provide hosting duties.

The Mesquite Western Roundup has been going on since 2005 for every year, with a lapse during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

When asked about the history of the Mesquite Western Poets organization, Marleen Bussma only knew a little bit, but she referred to poet Lee Kimberlin who had been a member of the organization since its very creation of it.

“It is a group of hardworking individuals,” said Lee Kimberlin. “The start was just a gathering of a couple of individuals.”

Lee Kimberlin is the only remaining original member of the Mesquite Western Poets. The person who enacted the motion to get the group going was Butch Buchalter who, along with Sam Jackson, put an article in the local paper asking for “anyone interested” to join them on Saturdays.

“I started going to those get-togethers,” said Kimberlin. “They were about two times a month and consisted of about 3 women and 6-8 guys.”

The idea of the Western Roundup started when after about 6-7 months after everyone started to get together, Buchalter came in and said, “Let’s do a show.”

“It scared me to death,” said Lee Kimberlin. “I was not expecting that and I was not a front and center type of guy.”

The idea started and they got things put together with help from Kenny Marshall in Moapa Valley, who was also an original member of the group.

“Kenny was so good at everything,” exclaimed Lee. “He put together a lot of the stage props… Built them from scratch. He was extremely a good poet as well.”

The first show was very primitive according to Kimberlin. “It has evolved a lot since then, involving video, pictures, special effects, and more.”

The show will be going on with tickets able to be purchased at the door, but also available online at http://www.mctnv.com. The price is $10 for general admission.

“A lot of good poets will be performing,” said Kimberlin. “There has been mighty fine poetry over the last 16 years in Mesquite.”

“It is going to be good music and good poetry… stories of the old days and a little bit of everything… and it rhymes,” joked Marleen Bussma.