Ashland native Rob McNurlin says that his dream to play like Johnny Cash began when his grandmother gave him a harmonica. As a singer/songwriter and as leader of the Beatnik Cowboys, he’s now making that dream come true; reviewers have called him “a cowboy prophet” and “the real deal.”

Rob started his professional career immediately after high school. Meetings with mentor Ramblin’ Jack Elliott soon let him know that he was on the right track, and in 1994 he released his first CD, Last of the Beatnik Cowboys. That was followed in 2000 by Cowboy Boot Heel, recorded at Johnny Cash’s own Cabin Studio with the Man in Black’s son, John Carter Cash, producing. Ramblin’ Jack helped out, too, singing on “I Dreamed I Saw Woody Guthrie.”

In 2003, Rob released Lonesome Valley Again. In 2004, one two-hour “live” session yielded Buffalo Skinners, a collection of 13 folk, hillbilly-blues, and gospel tracks.

  

Program 717

Clest Lanier, director of the Kentucky Center for African-American Heritage; visual artist W.T. Stinson of Russellville; and music by “cowboy troubadour” Rob McNurlin. (#717)

Program 732

Clest Lanier, director of the Kentucky Center for African-American Heritage; visual artist W.T. Stinson of Russellville; and music by “cowboy troubadour” Rob McNurlin. (#732)

Program 801

Printmaker Derrick Riley; music by A.M. Sunday and singer/songwriter Rob McNurlin; and a photography exhibit at Louisville’s Zephyr Gallery. (#801)

Program 811

Mixed-media artist Alice Ann Noel, the art collection of Louisville's Brown-Forman company, Louisville sculptor Paul Fields, and music from the Big Maracas and Rob McNurlin and His Beatnik Cowboys. (#811)