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Truly West Where seldom is heard a discouraging word ... By Tai Moses A THOUGHTFUL reader emailed this breathless communiqué: Laura Ellen from KPIG has had a baby and this link is it! Worth a listen to, echoes of KFAT. Being a fan of DJ Laura Ellen and having fond memories of KFAT, the venerable ancestor of KPIG-FM (107.5), I hied on over to Laura's love child, www.cowboyculturalsociety.com. This fledgling Internet radio channel has a homey yet stylish feel, kind of like an updated kitchen in an old farmhouse. Laura claims that she isn't aiming to foment revolution or change the world; she just wants to have some fun and celebrate "the music and poetry and the spirit of the cowboy." So she's decorated the place with a few barbed-wire dingbats, cooked up some cowboy humor ("Top 16 Lines You'll Never Hear in a Western"), kindled a virtual campfire in the hearth (a posse of cowboys standing around a crackling digital blaze) and selected a mix of what she calls not "strictly traditional Western music." The Cowboy Cultural Society's downloadable playlist includes the likes of Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and the Sons of the Pioneers, Marty Robbins, Hoyt Axton, Ramona Reed, Red Steagall, Spade Cooley and Ramblin' Jack Elliot. Their friendly voices conjure a taste of the lost life of the West, creating a beacon of warmth in a vast and cold cyberprairie. May the immortal soul of Will Rogers watch over you, Laura Ellen. You have done a good thing. [ Santa Cruz | MetroActive Central | Archives ]