Local poet Rik Goodell had a good year, indeed.  

He won the International Western Music Association Award of Excellence for his album, “Cowboyin’ with God,” which was named the 2025 Cowboy Poetry Album of the Year. 

The organization’s Awards of Excellence recognize artists who have shown the greatest competence in taking western music and cowboy poetry to the world. 

Goodell also garnered two nominations for the 2025 Academy of Western Artists awards in the cowboy poem and cowboy poetry book categories. 

His nominated poem, “Wanna Cowboy Do Ya?” is a delight to hear, especially when read by Goodell, himself. In it, he describes the not-so-glamorous side of cowboy life. 

Goodell’s book of cowboy poems, “Yonderin' Tales: Western Poetry from a Cowboy Heart,” is a collection of poems and rhyming stories about the life of a working cowboys now and in the old days. 

The year also brought him a couple of first-place buckles and three Will Rogers Medallion awards. The poet is on fire. 

Goodell, or Yonder, as he’s called, has lived in Whitefish for 15 years with his wife and “wonderful partner,” Audrey, and just started working in the field of cowboy poetry about five years ago. 

A theatre major at Fullerton College in Southern California, he acted for while in Hollywood, and on television and radio shows, and began dabbling in writing when he was a teenager. 

“Cowboy poetry is a funny animal. It has its origins back on the cattle drives, and it was entertainment for the hands, the drovers," he said. "Somebody might have a guitar, be able to play it, but they were out there for months, and their only entertainment was storytelling and rhyming helped them remember the stories and made them more interesting.” 

Cowboy poetry is better appreciated when heard rather than read. This plays to Goodell’s strengths because, along with his experience on stage, his voice is a soothing mix of salty gravel and hot chocolate.  

“It's a performance form. My background as an actor really influences how I perform or record my poetry,” Goodell said. “I care a little bit less about perfect meter than I do about telling my story and telling it in character.” 

Goodell travels to perform at cowboy poetry gatherings across the country and in Canada. Just this year, he’s entertained crowds across Montana and in Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. This winter, he is available for local gigs. 

Although Goodell writes about the West, sports a salt and pepper horseshoe mustache, and dresses the part in a silk neckerchief, beaver fur hat and silver belt buckle, he doesn’t claim to be a cowboy because he respects actual cowboys too much. 

“Cowboys are the guys that have the metal joints and busted knuckles and are missing a thumb because they got it caught in a dallied rope sometime and they sweat and bled and froze out on pastures ... in the high grass range,” he said. "I’ve never made my living cowboying, let's put it that way, and I haven't earned that title. 

“I live my life in the cowboy fringe,” Goodell said. “I worked on a horse ranch when I was a teenager for several years. I ran my own little cow calf operation for several years, but that doesn't make me a cowboy.” 

Goodell’s respect for the cowboy way began when he was 13 years old. Harry Easton, cowboy and former U.S. Calvary officer, served as his mentor. 

“He taught me to ride and shoot a lot of ethics and values that are pretty much standard in the cowboy way,” he said. “It was one of those fortunate situations where I respected him so much, I would have been nothing that would have ever caused him disappointment. 

“I really set about to try to copy all those values, and I haven't done it real well, but I've done it the best I can so far,” he said. 

Western movies and television shows featuring Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry and John Wayne, that portrayed the wholesome parts of cowboying, also inspired Goodell, even though he admits the depictions were not the most accurate. 

"The characters they presented in in their movies and in their stories were of high moral character and ... had what they called their cowboy code, this message for young folks how to behave -- don't lie, tell the truth and honor women,” he said. 

In addition to his books and CDs of cowboy poetry, Goodell has published a book of short stories and is currently working on his first novel.   

“I don't do it for the awards,” he said, noting they are like material applause. “But that's not what motivates me to do it. I'm not sure I have a whole lot of choice. I really, really need to write. It's just part of what I do.” 

For more information visit www.younderintales.com.