Website of Ralph Estes

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Some books

Aces & Eights: Poker in the Old West:  How the cowboys, outlaws, wild women, and lawmen of the Old West - Wild Bill Hickok, Doc HAces & Eightsolliday, Calamity Jane, Billy the Kid, all the rest - spent most of their time at the poker table, with occasional interruptions for gunfighting.  Without poker, would there even have been a wild west? - Click for more -
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Billy the Kid!  That story’s been told.  And yet -- no one has given Billy’s side. Autobiography of Billy the KidUntil now, with My Own Story: The Autobiography  of Billy the Kid.  What were Billy’s feelings, his intentions, as his saga unfolded?           -- more --
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The next book, The Hundred Year Waltz:  Jack Thorp and the Growth of Western Music, is nearly finished.

Me and Billy: The Show

Come ride with America's favorite outlaw - Billy the Kid.

The callow desperado who killed 21 men, one for each year of his life; robbed and rustled, tortured and murdered - while always laughing.

Or the lad who sang with a beautiful Irish tenor in Sunday School, organized and staged a musical show at the age of 12, and was always a compadre to the native New Mexicans.

A one-person show about the real Billy the Kid, not the fantasy constructed by authors and moviemakers - the orphan boy who challenged the Santa Fe Ring and its minions in Lincoln County, and who paid with his life. 

"Like Will Rogers with music."

Click here for a one-page flyer; or for a short video sample of "Me and Billy" click here.

About Ralph

With tunes and tales he blends true history with humor and song, accompanied on the autoharp.

Ralph has performed all over: the Lincoln State Monument, Ruidoso's Hubbard Museum of the American West, Ghost Ranch, Albuquerque Folk Festival, Red River Days, University of New Mexico, the International Western Music Association convention and festival, Albuquerque Museum, federal and state parks & monuments, performing arts centers, house concerts and theaters.

In another life Ralph was a business professor, author of ten books and many scholarly articles.  See Professor Ralph for a one-page vita.