Let's put a cowgirl in the White House

Let’s put a Cowgirl in the White House New Old II ml CiCi Wilcoxon, a real cowgirl who leads the band Dusty Rhodes and Her Handsome Cowboys, currently bunks in Forestville, where we discussed her storybook life. Wilcoxon got an early start, at age 12, working as a trail guide at rodeo grounds, hanging out with cowboys, learning their songs on her guitar around evening campfires. "I was a cowgirl from Day One," she says. During her 20s, on a cattle ranch in Colorado, she helped drive and brand herds on horseback. "I was surrounded by cowboys. What's not to like?" Later, she passed through stages as a Dylan /Baez-style folkie, a member of a bluegrass band, even a long strange trip with a Marin County rock n' roll band while living on a Sausalito houseboat, but returned to cowboy music as a duo with her husband, traveling to fairs and festivals. Wilcoxon has played Dusty Rhodes since 1989. Her show includes "tongue-in-cheek cowboy music," she says, as well as her originals. She makes her own outfits, including false braids attached to her hat, and "lots of fringe, Dale Evans style." She sings and plays standup bass, while the three Handsome Cowboys work out on guitar, fiddle, mandolin and harmonica. The band's "shtick," as she calls it, includes old-style cowboy yodeling with audience participation, humorous, vaudeville-type interaction between bandmembers, and topical songs about what she describes as "the latest dirt that everybody's talking about." One such tune is "Let's Put a Cowgirl in the White House." Wilcoxon' s early life in Hollywood intersects with her music. She grew up in Beverly Hills, two doors down from Ginger Rogers. Her given name is Cecilia, after her godfather, Cecil B. DeMille. Her father, Henry Wilcoxon played major roles in DeMille films, including that of Marc Antony opposite Claudette Colbert in 1934's "Cleopatra." Her mother acted in 75 B- movies. Wilcoxon spent time hanging around Paramount Studio sets where her dad played movie cowboys, and it shows in her music, some of which consists of parodies of the theme songs of old TV westerns she loved, like Rawhide and Bonanza. Her parents groomed her as an actress, including her in plays at a theater they operated in Hollywood, but she chose music, receiving a contract from RCA Records at 15. "I've been around too many actors and knew that wasn't my world, but I loved musicians," she says. Wilcoxon' s acting ability is evident in her shows, including the characters of Dusty and Honey B., the leader of her other band, Honey B. & the Pollinators, which plays 30s-40s swing and jazz standards. "I become the characters who are singing. It's the actress in me," she says. You can join the fun at their free shows at the Petaluma and Cloverdale libraries on Jan. 11 and Feb. 8 respectively, part of the Sonoma County Libraries' attempt to reach out to the community and attract new patrons. "People listen there. They're quiet," Wilcoxon says vociferously. "Kids come and get a kick out of us."