Cowboy poetry, Buddy Holly and dad -- Ned LeDoux talks 'Buckskin'

Dec. 10—There's two musicians that every country music fan in Cheyenne knows, and they happen to share the same last name.

Ned LeDoux, son of the late musician and rodeo champion Chris LeDoux, now has three solo albums under his belt. He manages to draw a healthy crowd every time he comes home, as he is expected to do at The Lincoln Theatre on Jan. 6.

A product of Cheyenne and Kaycee, Wyoming, LeDoux called in from his home in Kansas to speak with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle about the inspiration for some of the tracks on his newest album, "Buckskin," and his efforts to balance family and life on the road.

Wyoming Tribune Eagle: I imagine it gets pretty tough once you're more ingrained in being with your family. It's probably hard staying on the road for too long.

Ned LeDoux: "Yeah. There are other guys in the group that have kids of their own and a wife at home, so it's great with the schedule that we have. It would be nice to play 20 or 30 more shows, but then we're gonna miss different events at home."

Q: Do you think you have 20 or 30 more shows a year in you?

A: "Definitely."

Q: What do you do to pass the time when you're not touring or sitting and writing new work? Just kind of being a dad?

A: "Pretty much. As busy as we've been, when I get home, I never take the guitar out of the case. I'm a husband and I'm a dad, doing stuff around that house that maybe only I can get done. Those are things I sort of look forward to.

"Say we're out on the road for a week and a half. I'm like, 'OK, this has been a great run, but I'm kind of looking forward to getting home. I need to get this done, and I need to finish this one project.'"

Q: When you were writing songs (for "Buckskin") during the pandemic, when you were locked down, how did that affect what you were writing?

A: "I listen to a lot of different music. For a couple weeks I'll listen to a lot of heavy metal, like Pantera and Metallica. The next thing I'll listen to is '90s alternative grunge. I'll listen to cowboy poetry, then there's a couple of weeks where I listen to Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry and that kind of stuff."

One night over the pandemic, LeDoux was sitting in his basement playing guitar. He didn't plan to write any new material, but something he came up with reminded him of a Buddy Holly riff.

"The fact that I was listening to his stuff a few weeks before just kind of channeled its way into a song that I wrote on the new album called 'Hey, Hey.' It was definitely inspired by that genre of music."

The lead single off the album, "Open Road," was directly inspired by his restlessness during the pandemic.

"I kind of played the role of the grocery getter during that time, so every week and a half or two weeks, I'd go to get groceries and whatever we needed. We were probably two or three months into not playing gigs, and I was really starting to miss the road with the band."

During one of the grocery trips, he starting singing to himself.

"I've got to get back on the highway

Out on the open road

I can't stand to stay in the same place

I gotta get up and go'"

Q: You mentioned cowboy poetry a minute ago. Could you elaborate on what that is?

A: "Well, how do I explain this? It depicts the cowboy way of life, and it's been around forever. There's a really cool deal out in Nevada with the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and there's a lot of other gatherings around the West. There's guys like Don Edwards, Waddie Mitchell, Baxter Black, just legendary cowboy poets. I listened to that stuff all the time when I was a kid, and still do.

"I was pretty fortunate to be able to be a part of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering a couple of times. There's actually a poem that I wrote that's on the album, it's called 'The Buckskin.'"

Q: I was going to ask about that.

A: "The poem itself is about Dad — his championship ride in 1976, when he won the bareback championship. I remember him telling stories about the horse and everything leading up to it. I read some articles about it and thought it might make for a pretty good song.

"I couldn't quite figure out how I wanted to put it together in a song, and I thought, 'Well, this might be better off as being spoken word.'"

Q: With the song being kind of right in middle the album, it really does mark this halfway point after some of the more upbeat tempos. You hit some spoken word, and it really does grab your attention.

A: "And on every album I put out, I do one of Dad's original songs. My producer, the great Mac McAnally, I was talking with him about what song we should pick. He picked out "He Rides the Wild Horses," and I thought that would be perfect to follow 'The Buckskin' poem."

Q: That was a great cover you put together, too. I really like the flow of the album, and there's some songs I really enjoy, like "Cards in San Antone."

A: "That's a true story. That song could have been a couple minutes longer. It's a song about silly things that happened and what didn't happen.

"Cards in San Antone" covers the experience of his band being stranded in San Antonio, Texas, playing cards for five days with just two days worth of clothes.

"We should have been in Denver

Getting ready for a show

But were stuck here playing cards in San Antone"

"It sucked in the moment. We were wondering if we were ever going to get out of there. No flights we could book, we thought about using a box truck. I think we're there for like six days."

Q: What are some other songs on the album that stand out from your perspective?

A: "This sounds kind of cocky, but I just like the variety of stuff that's been on all my albums. A lot of that comes from the help of (producer) Mac McAnally. It's great to work with Mac because he's like a chameleon. He's been playing with Jimmy Buffett for probably 30 years.

"He can write songs about palm trees and beaches, then he can turn around and write a song about rodeo and ranching."

LeDoux has worked with McAnally on all of his albums.

Q: It has such big effect to continue working with one producer and to keep honing a vision you have. It makes a big difference in the outcome of the catalog, I assume.

A: "He's definitely helped me mature as a songwriter. I remember telling him after my second album was made that I can't imagine working with anybody else. He goes, 'I appreciate that, but there's probably somebody better than me.'

"I said, 'Well, I haven't met him yet, and I'm not searching.'"

Will Carpenter is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's Arts and Entertainment/Features Reporter. He can be reached by email at wcarpenter@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3135. Follow him on Twitter @will_carp_.