Dolan Ellis and Sam Lowe

Here’s something odd — when Dolan Ellis and I first met, we tried to gun each other down in a shootout. It was a promotion for a Scottsdale’s Parada del Sol rodeo. We were armed with six-guns and faced each other on Main Street. Then we drew and fired, but nobody got hurt because we were shooting blanks. It probably wouldn’t have made any difference because Ellis, Arizona’s Official Balladeer, and I, a newspaper columnist, definitely had no business being involved in a bullet-blasting showdown anyhow.

That was more than 30 years ago, and a longstanding friendship developed out of the incident. Now Dolan and I have collaborated on a book entitled “Arizona: Lens, Lyrics and Lore.” It’s a combination project, featuring a CD of songs Dolan wrote and recorded, a multitude of his photographs, and some descriptive essays about the songs and photos, all written by me.

Anyone interested in more details can log on to Inkwell Productions.