LA GRANDE — Award-winning Western songwriter Kerry Grombacher will appear in concert at the Cook Memorial Library at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19.

The concert at the library, 2006 Fourth St. in La Grande, is free.

In the spirit of the troubadours of old, Grombacher’s contemporary folk and Western songs paint vivid portraits and tell stories that set in the landscape he travels, from the bayous of Louisiana, through the desert Southwest, to the Hi-Line of Montana and the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

“Range of the Buffalo,” the title track of his 2021 CD, was named Song of the Year by the International Western Music Association.

His songs about Northeastern Oregon include “Along the John Day River,” which is rooted in his experiences fighting forest fires on the Malheur National Forest in the early 1970s.

Grombacher logs as many as 40,000 miles each year driving from show to show, and he is a regular visitor to Oregon.

“This is my first opportunity to perform in La Grande,” Grombacher said recently. “I’ve been fascinated by the landscape and the wildlife of the area since I worked in John Day for the U.S. Forest Service, and I’m looking forward to returning to Eastern Oregon this year for concerts.”

Grombacher has performed on stages as varied as the Newport Folk Festival, the Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and the Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage.

In Oregon, he’s performed at the High Desert Museum, and in concert series and venues in Ashland, Talent, Phoenix, Brookings, Eugene, Portland, Tillamook, The Dalles, Condon, Prineville, Burns, John Day, Prairie City, Joseph, and Enterprise.

In addition to appearing at cowboy gatherings and folk festivals, he performs regularly at concert halls and other music venues, and he’s been featured on “Born to Explore,” the ABC television adventure travel program, and on “River City Folk,” the nationally syndicated music interview program.

A native of Kansas, Grombacher now makes his home in New Orleans now, but he lived in Austin, Texas for many years. A self-taught musician who plays guitar and mandolin, he has fought forest fires in Oregon, worked as a field archaeologist in New Mexico, done day work on ranches in New Mexico, Colorado and California, and worked with an outfitter in Yellowstone National Park and in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Kerry Grombacher’s recordings are “Range of the Buffalo,” “It Sings in the Hi-Line,” “Sands Motel,” “Riding for the Brand,” “Dreams of New Orleans,” and “Home to the West.” 

Nalini Jones, of the Newport Folk Festival, says “Kerry Grombacher is the best kind of songwriter, with lyrics that take us on journeys to places we’ve never visited before, and melodies so pure and true that they seem to rise up from the plains…” Cowboys & Indians Magazine said songwriter Kerry Grombacher “…is one of the West’s new breed, who builds on, embellishes, expands, and updates traditional Western themes.”

For information, call 541-962-1339 or visit cookmemoriallibrary.org.