Washington State Singer-Songwriter Makes Another Alaska Pilgrimage

"Cows With Guns" is the Dana Lyons song you are most likely to have heard: "He was a scrawny calf / who looked rather woozy / no one suspected / he was packing an Uzi / cows with guns."

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By Bill McAllister
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Story Created: Aug 18, 2011 at 4:07 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Aug 19, 2011 at 9:15 AM AKDT

The recent Salmonstock music festival on the Kenai Peninsula attracted a singer-songwriter who has made Alaska a home away from home.

For the past two decades, Dana Lyons of Bellingham, Washington, has been playing venues from the Southeast Panhandle to above the Arctic Circle.

And he expects to be back.

"Cows With Guns" is the Dana Lyons song you are most likely to have heard: "He was a scrawny calf / who looked rather woozy / no one suspected / he was packing an Uzi / cows with guns."

Lyons' five-minute absurdist tale of heat-packing bovine rebels has international fans, thanks in part to YouTube.

"There's a 'Cows With Guns' animation and a claymation. The animation was created by a Norwegian computer guy and the claymation was created by some Australian high school students, and both of them have over 1.2 million views. So it's outrageous how it's out there."

Lyons has been mixing comical material with environmental and social issues songs over the course of eight CDs and two decades.

He also views the music itself as a hybrid.

"The type of music -- actually there's now a label that I think actually fits called Americana, which I feel comfortable in, because i'm not really country. You know, I guess i'm folk, but I don't feel totally comfortable with that, and folk rock. But Americana, it's kind of a mixture of all those and it's kind of roots music."

Danny Preston, the musical director at anchorage radio station KNBA, recently had Lyons on his morning program and also caught his performance at Salmonstock.

"If Dana wanted to be a household name, he would be. And could be. But my sense is that that's not really his style. I think he'll leave an indelible mark with a lot of the really tireless touring he does -- not just in Alaska or the lower 48 -- but all around the world."

In 2001, Lyons was an honored guest at a gathering of Gwich'in Athabascans in Arctic Village.

Lyons has played in most regions of the state, and he says Alaskans can expect to see him again within a couple of years.

Lyons also has written an illustrated children's book, based on his song "The Tree."

And he recorded a combined song and spoken word CD with anthropologist and peace activist Jane Goodall.

He sells his products on his own website – cowswithguns.com

 

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