Sourdough Slim

His specialty is authentic and traditional western yodeling music from before the time it merged with country music, with a few modern (circa 1930) songs thrown in for flavor. He also writes his own original music.

His non-stop touring schedule has included performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering, Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Utah's Festival of the American West, the International Folk Alliance Conference in Albuquerque, N.M., and scores of fairs, festivals and events across the country.

For the last five consecutive years, Sourdough Slim has been nominated Cowboy Yodeler of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists, and his album, Ridin' High, Singin' a Song, was named Spotlight Album of the month for March 1998, by the British magazine Country Music People. Honored by The Academy of Western Artists with the 2001 Will Rogers Award for "yodeler of the year", Sourdough Slim (a.k.a. Rick Crowder) is hailed as "the best yodeler in the world" by legendary Canadian singer Ian Tyson. An accomplished singer and multi-instrumentalist as well, his repertoire of lively material includes timeless western classics, novelty show stoppers and his own original songs of cowboy life gone astray. But what audiences seem to rave about most is the fact that Sourdough Slim is a very funny man. A natural showman, likened to a modern day W. C. Fields, his comic routines and humorous stories tickle the funny bones of people from all walks of life. After twelve years of nonstop touring Slim has perfected his timing and delivery to a fine art. Larry Kelp, noted columnist with the East Bay Express, simply puts it this way, "Sourdough Slim is the most entertaining cowboy singer-yodeler-accordionist extant!"

Born in 1950 in Hollywood, California, Rick Crowder spent much of his childhood on a family cattle ranch in the Sierra foothills. But as he explains, "my true calling as a cowboy was not on the range but rather on the stage." He paid his dues, developed his comic character, honed his yodeling style and garnered the nick name "Slim" while performing in several popular western bands in the 1970's and 80's. His fascination with early 20th century cowboy culture and its popular impact has led to much research. In 1988 he came up with the idea for an act based on a whimsical accordion playing yodeling cowboy, became Sourdough Slim, and has never looked back.