Album Notes

Gail Steiger - biography

born 4-30-56 Prescott, Az


Gail Steiger comes from both a ranching and songwriting background. His grandfather, Gail Gardner, wrote several well - known cowboy songs, including "Tying the Knots in the Devil's Tail" (or "Sierry Pete's"), and "The Dude Wrangler". Gail Gardner was once named "Poet Lariat" [sic] of Arizona.

Gail Steiger worked on his father's ranches off and on while growing up, and later worked full time on the Cross U and Spider Ranches in Yavapai County, AZ for several years. He's also worked for the Yolo Ranch, the 7UP, the DC Cattle Co., and the O6 Ranch.

In 1987, Gail, his brother Lew, and some people Gail had worked for and with made a film about cowboys called "Ranch Album", which was ultimately released as a national PBS special. The film was awarded a CINE Golden Eagle, TV Guide called it "cinematically brilliant and wonderfully constructed" and the Wall Street Journal said it was " a gorgeous film". Ranch Album was also included in The Academy of Motion Picture Arts/ UCLA Film and Television Archive Series of Outstanding Documentaries.

Gail has been the foreman of the Spider Ranch since 1995. He continues to work part-time with Lew on various film and multimedia projects. He's sung songs and told stories at cowboy poetry gatherings in Elko, Nevada, Prescott, Arizona, Alpine Texas, Las Cruces, New Mexico and Durango Colorado, to name a few.

He's been writing songs for thirty years. He mainly tries to write about real life. Sometimes the songs are about cowboys or cowboy life, and sometimes they're about a cowboy's take on life in general in these late 1900’s / early 2000's.