Gail Steiger

Gail Steiger comes from both a ranching and songwriting background. His grandfather, Gail Gardner, wrote several well known cowboy songs, including "Tying Knots in the Devil\'s Tail".(or "Sierry Pete\'s").

In 1987, Gail, his brother Lew, and some friends Gail had worked for and with made a film about cowboys called "Ranch Album", which was 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 included in The Academy of Motion Picture Arts/ UCLA Film and Television Archive Series of Outstanding Documentaries.

Gail has been the foreman of the 50,000 acre Spider Ranch since 1995. He continues to work part-time with Lew on various film and multimedia projects. He\'s recorded 2 cd’s, The Romance of Western Life in 1999, and A Matter of Believin’ in 2015. He has sung songs and told stories at cowboy poetry gatherings around the west. He was a guest on Prairie Home Companion in January, 2013.

Gail has traveled to Mongolia, Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain and Hungary with the Western Folklife Center in connection with their cultural exchange program, working on a documentary project about cowboys around the world. He recently traveled to Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, at the invitation of the US Embassies in Kabul and Ashgabat, to try to connect some American cowboys with Afghan and Turkmen horsemen and herders.