ARLINGTON – Country singer Jesse Taylor of Arlington roped in some new fans July 21.
He sang and taught his roping skills to about 50 kids attending the Arlington Boys and Girls Club at President’s Elementary School.
Taylor, 28, used to play basketball as a member of the club, then later coached kids.
“I love to do stuff like this,” he said. “Anything to help my hometown.”
Taylor played mostly cover songs for the kids, even though he does have original music.
“People like hearing songs they know,” he said.
Evelyn Guillen, 8, who has been attending the club’s summer camp for four years, said her favorite song was “Big Green Tractor,” which is a Jason Aldean original. Jaedyn Atkins, 7, liked his version of Darius Rucker’s “Wagon Wheel.”
“He’s my favorite recording artist ever,” said Kaylee Nasi, 6, who played guitar with Taylor and was given a pick as a souvenir.
Victoria Bergeson, 13, said, “It’s not every day we get to see somebody that famous.”
She enjoyed the message in one of his songs.
“He stopped in the middle and said, ‘Don’t go to jail. It’s bad,'” she said.
Mikayla Peters, 12, said the concert and roping clinic are just two things the summer camp has offered that she’s “never got to do before.”
Earlier in the day, they went to Jennings Memorial Park in Marysville and had a campfire with stories about cowboys, Maxine Willett of the club said.
“That got them in the mood” for Taylor’s show, she said, adding it was all part of “Giddy-Up Week” at the camp.
Taylor started roping at age 3, got his first guitar at 4, rode his first bull at 14 and became a songwriter at 16. He competed in some rodeos when he was younger, and he said he’d like to start riding bulls again. One of his songs, “One Chance to Win,” is about the excitement and danger of bullriding.
He and his dad, Jody, put on roping classes at fairs and such. His dad still has a farm near Bryant.
Taylor is called a singing cowboy, in the tradition of such legends as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and George Strait. But he hasn’t just roamed the Old West. He spent two years in Hawaii taking tourists on trail rides and singing for them. He also went to Dubai to sings for the troops and to the Virgin Islands recently to perform at a country music festival.
But he’s now back in the saddle at home. He will perform at 2 p.m. at the Stanwood-Camano Fair Saturday, Aug. 1, and Aug. 9 at the Stillaguamish Festival of the River, opening for Thompson Square.
