Yesterday we wrote about Garth Brooks and mentioned the great Chris LeDoux.

The quintessential Wyoming cowboy, LeDoux was the PRCA World Champion Bareback Bronco rider in 1976. In 1969, LeDoux won the national intercollegiate bareback championship, while in 1967, he was the Wyoming state champion in the same event.

All the while, LeDoux was writing and performing songs, mostly about rodeo and rodeoing. In 1986, he retired from competitive rodeo altogether and focused on his performing career, though the writing was on the wall with 1984's Melodies and Memories. The opening track was called "I Can't Ride the Broncs Anymore."

Well I spent lots of years out on that highway,

Ridin' buckin' horses for my grub.

But now I make my livin' with this ole guitar.

And just like Rodeo it's in my blood.

And now I'm gonna sing my cowboy music,

With a country feelin' and a little touch of soul.

I attended several Chris LeDoux shows in the late 1990s. I've never seen a better performer on stage than Chris. Sweet guy, too. As a member of his Fan Club, I was able to go backstage after the concert for an autograph.

He had more than a touch of soul in his performance. It was something that the world never saw and will not see again. Fireworks and a mechanical bull all integrated into the act. Seamlessly.

It was in the 1980s when LeDoux turned from a cowboy-western performer to a cowboy rock 'n' roller while maintaining his country roots.

I appreciate the pure rodeo and cowboy songs, but I also liked LeDoux's turn as a rock 'n' roller and as a pop-country star (underappreciated but phenomenal).

1994's Haywire was arguably LeDoux's pinnacle of country-rock. For context, he rips off "Tougher Than the Rest" better than original artist and songwriter...Bruce Springsteen.

A close second was Stampede, LeDoux's 1996 studio release, full of several hits that he would include on 1997's Live (my third-favorite concert album of all-time, behind Van Morrison's It's Too Late to Stop Now and The Last Waltz—on which the Belfast Cowboy appears in at least two numbers), he includes "When I Say Forever," a song written by Dennis Linde.

While the LeDoux number did not include any particular reference to Norwell, Linde's fictional town depicted in "John Deere Green," "Queen of My Double-Wide Trailer," and dozens of other compositions by the famed songwriter, it was a love song that wasn't sappy, particularly by 1990s country standards.

Upon the 2022 sale of a large interest of Linde's song catalog to Sheltered Music Publishing, Linde's widow, Pam, said this:

"First and foremost, Dennis was a great father and loving husband. He was the greatest man I ever met and I miss him every day."

One wonders about the chorus in "When I Say Forever" and if Linde may have written it as a love letter to his wife.

And when I say forever I mean forever

It'll go on 'til the end of time

The world may stop turning

The sun may stop burning

But I know that my love will still survive

And when I say forever, I mean forever

Amen.

May even bring a little saltwater out of the ducts.

Our Dennis Linde resource page is in its embryonic stage. We plan for the page to become a staple of our website.

As always,

Brian