Local Music Icon, Aspen Black, Explores the Cultural Differences Between Country and Western Music

Aspen Black, a singer/songwriter in the Cowboy/Western and Country music genres, has been studying the cultural differences between these two styles. This study was part of her third appearance at the Coffeyville Community College Humanities Project. The term 'Country and Western' was a combined musical category in the early 20th Century. However, by the century's end, Country music had become more popular.

Aspen Black is a versatile artist who plays various instruments and performs original music concerts. She also teaches music and performs at local festivals and senior living facilities. She is a member of the Grombacher and Black duo and the all-female band, Redbud Road.

In the mid-1990s, Aspen had a successful career in mainstream country music and also ran a successful horse training business. After listening to an album of Ian Tyson's western songs, she shifted her focus to contemporary Western music, which she has pursued for the past 25 years.

Aspen's music blends the history of settlers, cowhands, and ranchers with her own experiences as a rodeo rider and horse trainer. She has written original songs and poems that reflect the historical and modern West. Her work has won several awards, including first place in the 2023 International Western Music Association’s Songwriting Contest. She was also a finalist for the IWMA’s 2023 Songwriter of the Year and the Female Performer of the Year awards.

In 2018, Aspen received a Will Rogers Medallion for her Cowboy Poetry CD, “Tales From the Road.” Her music CD, “Lovin’ the West” was the 2017 Rural Roots Music Commission’s Classic Western CD of the Year. Her “Eastern-Western Cowgirl” music CD was the RRMC’s 2015 Female Country-Western CD of the Year. She was also a finalist for the IWMA’s Female Poet of the Year multiple times, and her poetry CDs, “Tales From the Road,” and “Invisibility,” were finalists for the IWMA’s Cowboy Poetry CD of the Year in 2018 and 2016.

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