One of Canada’s top cowboy poets, Bryn Thiessen, is going on his final ride, having died on Tuesday at his ranch near Sundre. He was in his early 60s.
The life-long central Albertan was remembered as a real “old school” cowboy who did all of his ranch chores from horseback, by his friend of 40 years singer/songwriter and Western cartoonist Ben Crane.
Thiessen, who had suffered from health problems the last few years, was multi-faceted. The family man/rancher was also a preacher at the Cowboy Trail Church in Cochrane, a humourist and philosopher. As owner of Helmer Creek Ranch, near Bergen, he was one of only two Albertans allowed to round up Alberta’s feral horses, according to a 2013 CBC story.
But Thiessen was best known as being Canada’s finest and most entertaining cowboy poet, said Crane.
“He wouldn’t just stand up there and spout. He would really work the crowd and make everybody feel like they were the most important person in the room,” he recalled.
Thiessen’s rhyming poetry could be profound. It was often laced with humour — such as The Gentleman, about a well-meaning cowboy who earned black eyes trying to help an ample “gal” adjust her clingy dress.
Thiessen wrote a regular column for Cowboy Country Magazine, where many of his poems were published.
During the heyday of cowboy poetry gatherings, in the mid-1980s to early 2000s, he was invited to recite his works at events all across Western Canada — and even at a Sons of the Pioneers event in Branson, Missouri, recalled Crane.
The popularity of cowboy poetry appeared to die off with the older generation of its fans. But there was a revival in Caroline in September — which was the last time Crane saw his friend.
The two men had met through mutual acquaintances in the early 1980s. Crane credits Thiessen for “nudging” him to start performing for audiences. Some of his first songs were adapted from Thiessen’s poems, which offered keen observations of human nature.
Crane recalled his late buddy as a loyal and reflective person with a sharp wit. His humour was once heard at a wedding where the groom, with hair braided down his back, got hitched while wearing a kilt. As the master of ceremonies, Thiessen quipped: “It’s the first wedding I’ve been to where the groom’s hair is longer and his dress shorter than the bride’s.”
The poet was born in the Rocky Mountain House area, where his father had been a teacher. As the lone boy among five sisters, Thiessen described himself as being so shy as a child that his parents hired a tutor to encourage him to write and express his thoughts on paper.
He was married to his wife Bonny for more than 30 years, and the couple now has three adult children.
A 1 p.m. memorial service will be held on Jan. 27 at Hillock’s Arena, about 2.5 miles west of Bergen Church.