Enjoy the music of Rex Rideout, Norman Hughes and Dennis Swiftdeer Paige at the ninth annual Conifer Christmas show December 21. This year’s performances will take place at StageDoor Theatre with a 2 pm matinee and an evening show at 6 pm. As is the tradition, the gathering will feature stories of Christmas celebrated in the Old West with songs ranging from the 19th century back to Elizabethan times.
All ticket proceeds benefit three local nonprofit organizations: Mountain Resource Center, Conifer Historical Society, and StageDoor Theatre. Attendees are encouraged to bring goods to the non-perishable food drive for the Mountain Resource Center. Tickets are available at StageDoorTheatre.org
“Through story and song, Rex revives the early American West for his audiences… ”
From Rock ‘n’ Roll to Reenactments
As an aspiring musician, 14-year-old Rex Rideout straddled rock ‘n’ roll and battlefield reenactments. Some days, Rex joined his buddies as a guitar player in The Fox band performing contemporary tunes from the Beatles, Three Dog Night, and Credence Clearwater Revival at local taverns in his rural hometown of Pemberville, Ohio. Other days, he’d grab his prized fiddle—a gift from mentor Lloyd Weddell—and strum 19th century songs to accompany Civil War reenactments organized by men of an earlier generation.
While he admittedly lived in “sheltered farm country,” Rex’s family home was in a region steeped in history from settlements and trade operations of Native Americans in the 1700s to the American Revolution’s decisive Battle of Fallen Timbers, and conflicts in the War of 1812. With his neighbor Lloyd as his guide, Rex became enamored with the events, lifestyles and music of bygone eras.
“Lloyd’s family was among the first settlers in our region of Ohio, and he was taught the skills necessary to pioneer living—blacksmithing, metalworking, woodcarving, and fiddle-playing, all of which he passed on to me,” says Rideout. “Lloyd wanted to preserve the practices of previous generations which he knew would become more obsolete as time went on. I share that desire, and I enjoy passing along the music and stories that shaped our country in the 19th century, particularly in the cowboy tradition.”
Casting Calls for a Music Historian
Preserving musical history through education and entertainment led Rex to establish Time Travel Music. Through story and song, Rex revives the early American West for his audiences, making him sought-after by museums, historical societies and even Hollywood, which recruited him to perform in 2011’s “Cowboys and Aliens” film starring Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig.
“I was the fiddle player in the saloon fight scene of the movie,” says Rex. “The director, Jon Favreau (who also directed “Elf,” “Iron Man” and “The Jungle Book”), told me he really wanted music that created the authentic feeling of the 1870s West. That way, when the aliens hit, the shock value would be even greater. I chose to play “Rye Whiskey.”
Some of Rideout’s recent projects include collaborating with producer/director Brad Dumke on the musical selections for a 2023 PBS documentary, “Badger Clark: Poet Among the Pines.” Not only did Rex’s instrumental performance set the mood for the story of the man called “the godfather of cowboy poetry,” but he was also a contributing, on-camera commentator for the production. His next PBS opportunity is to provide the soundtrack for historian Paul Andrew Hutton’s production about New Mexico’s path to statehood.
Rooted in the Rocky Mountains
While enjoying a reputation as a historian and musician on the national level, Rex remains rooted in his beloved Colorado. Not long after his arrival in 1982, he began a 40-year professional career with the Colorado School of Mines where he was an Electronics Specialist. Rex’s precision, attention to detail and problem-solving were valued as he worked with machinists and with cryogenic technology. His involvement on the music scene has included a decades-long relationship with folk music mecca Swallow Hill, participating in the Colorado Cowboy Gathering, which includes coordinating outreach to fifth-grade students in Jefferson County, performances at The Fort restaurant and Tesoro Cultural Center, and serving as a storyteller and instrumentalist for programs through the National Parks Service, including a long stint at Bent’s Old Fort.
An accomplished musician on guitar, fiddle, mandolin and banjo, Rex did not have formal training. He learned by ear and from playing in jam sessions with musicians eager to share their talents with an aspiring performer. Now retired from his vocation, Rex pursues his passion for presenting musical history to audiences throughout the West. Nebraska, New Mexico, Wyoming, and South Dakota have welcomed him to their cowboy poetry events and gatherings celebrating the spirit of the Old West and the early cowboys. To learn more about Rex and his programs, go to timetravelmusic.com.
While he has gained popularity as a storyteller, Rex, like poet Badger Clark, values the peace, beauty and solitude offered by nature’s wide-open spaces. As Clark penned in “The Old Cow Man:”
With skyline bounds from east to west
And room to go and come,
I loved my fellow man the best
When he was scattered some.
