WYLIE (GUSTAFSON) AND THE WILD WEST
Dusty, Washington
Cowboy Western
Wylie's music and home life are intertwined. He tends daily to the livestock on his Cross Three Ranch near the small town of Dusty, Washington, where he and his wife, Kim, train and sell quarter horses. Wylie also regularly competes in rodeos and is an accomplished cutting horse enthusiast, having won the 2005 NCHA Western National Finals Championship.
According to Wylie, ranching grounds him and is the backbone of his music, a blend of western swing, classic country, cowboy and folk. Born in Conrad, Montana in 1961 and raised on a cattle ranch, Wylie learned singing and yodeling from his father, R. W. "Rib" Gustafson, a rancher/veterinarian who, in turn, had learned from Austrians on the ski team at what is now Montana State University. Rib would yodel while building fences and during long drives to work or on family trips.
While trying to establish a music career in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, Wylie furthered his yodeling skills by practicing to Austrian training tapes. Yodeling, he told his father, would make him famous. Initially taking after his brother Erik as a rock 'n' roll musician, Wylie sang at open-mics in the Los Angeles area. Soon, though, he was drawn to the country and western scene and soon began playing regularly at the Palomino Club in LA. Wylie's musical mentors and influences also include Riders in the Sky, Asleep at the Wheel, Marty Robbins, and Chuck Berry; amongst his idols are Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.
In 1990 Wylie produced a music video that quickly became popular on the Nashville Network and Country Music Television. Before long, he was on the stage at the Grand Ol' Opry, where he has appeared now over fifty times. Wylie & the Wild West have recently received a number of honors from the Academy of Western Artists and the Western Music Association with awards for Group of the Year (2005), Yodeler of the Year (2004, 2005), and Best Western Swing Album (2006). Wylie's famous yodeling can be heard on commercials promoting the Montana State Tourism Commission as well as Yahoo.com.
The rest of the Wild West are Ray Doyle on guitar, mandolin, baritone guitar and vocals; Rick Bryceson on drums; and T. Scot Wilburn (whose father played in the 40s and 50s with the Northwest combo, The Snake River Outlaws) on guitar, steel and fiddle.
Links
http://www.wylieww.com/reviews/acstory.htm
http://www.wylieww.com/reviews/whstory.htm
http://www.wylieww.com/reviews/seatimes.htm
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