Why the Cowboy Sings
Producer Biographies

"Why the Cowboy Sings," Press Information:

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Together, Taki Telonidis and Hal Cannon have recently completed their video documentary, "Why the Cowboy Sings" which premiered in January 2002 as a signature event of the Salt Lake City Olympics. It has been awarded a Rocky Mountain Emmy and a Gold Special Jury Award at the Houston Film Festival.

In Public radio, they have created more than 40 features about life in the American West over the past four years. Their work airs regularly on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday and on Public Radio International's Marketplace and Savvy Traveler.

They have also completed a high definition museum production, which is the centerpiece of the Western Folklife Center's permanent exhibit. Working with the Center, Hal and Taki record the rare and endangered stories of the American West, creating a lasting sound and video archive. Currently, they are supported by the R. Harold Burton Foundation, and the George and Dolores Dor'e Eccles Foundation among others.

Hal Cannon is the founding Director of the Western Folklife Center and its famous child, the Cowboy Poetry Gathering. He has published a dozen books and recordings on the folk arts of the West. Awards include a bronze medal at the New York International Radio Festival, three Wrangler Awards from the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, the 1998 Will Rogers Lifetime Achievement Award, the Utah Governors Award in both the Arts and Humanities, and the Botkin Award from the American Folklore Society.

Taki Telonidis has been media producer for the Western Folklife Center since August of 1998. With leaders of the Zuni Indian tribe of New Mexico, he recently produced a CD featuring traditional music and storytelling, the first-ever compilation of its kind. Telonidis came to the West from National Public Radio in Washington DC, where between 1994 and 1998 he was Senior Producer of Weekend All Things Considered. In 1995 the show was awarded the Overseas Press Club Award for Breaking News. Telonidis has received the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Gold and Silver Awards.

The Western Folklife Center is a non-profit organization based both in Nevada and Utah. Best known of its National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, its mission is to preserve and present the varied cultural traditions of the American West. Key to providing understanding is an education effort through the production of radio and television programming.

KUED-7 on the University of Utah campus has produced some of the most popular documentaries on the history and culture of ranching. Together, with the Western Folklife and producer Alan Sacks, they created a PBS favorite "Elko: A Cowboy Gathering." KUED producer, John Howe has also produced "The Outlaw Trail," "Artists of the West," and "The Last Cowboy."

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