Dave Stamey plays at the OK Theatre in Enterprise on Saturday, Sept. 9.

ENTERPRISE — Dave Stamey, one of Wallowa County’s favorite performers, returns to the OK Theatre Saturday, Sept. 9.

Stamey’s Enterprise appearance is in conjunction with Hells Canyon Mule Days held at the Wallowa County Fairgrounds. He describes his music as Western Americana, closer to folk than “Nashville” country, and has built a devoted following for the past 25 years.

“My life’s work is celebrating the rural American West,” Stamey said. “I visit the niftiest rural communities all over and sing their stories to them.”

A native Montanan, Stamey said sometimes he even writes songs to himself.

“Two weeks ago I was driving through Judith Basin in central Montana and I was blown away by the landscape — everywhere you look, it was a Charlie Russell painting. I hadn’t been through that part of the state in a long time and I almost wanted to relocate, until I remembered what it’s like in the winter, so I just finished a song about the upside of 40 below — it keeps the skeeters down and the Fuller Brush man don’t come knocking on your door.”

A disciplined writer, Stamey said when he has the opportunity, he tries to write something every morning. Having shown a talent for writing stories in high school, a teacher introduced him to a Western writer who published 40 novels.

“He was kind enough to invite me into his home and feed me lunch, always sent me his new book when it came out, and he gave me the best advice I was ever given, ‘Don’t get it right, get it written,’” he said.

The writer, John Reese, mentored Stamey until his death in the 1980s.

“He taught me about discipline and that you have to show up every day and put your butt in the seat,” Stamey said.

Still following Reese’s advice, Stamey said he wrote heavily every day in the first part of the year before going into a busy touring season.

“I’m going back over what I produced during that creative period and trying to shape it into useable songs — and I am having pretty good luck,” he said.

Based in California’s Central Valley, he’s had an incredibly busy year on the road including several two-week stretches.

“I have courted this audience for 25 years and they are all responding now,” Stamey said. “I have more work than I was looking to get and it is not a bad thing, so I am trying to honor everyone who wants me to come and play.”

Stamey said he has played at both the OK Theatre and at the fairgrounds and is enthusiastic about the Sept. 9 show.

“I look forward to being back in the theater — I think old theaters are great. I played one in Hicksville, Ohio, an old vaudeville theater, and the genesis of the phrase, ‘Playing for the hicks from the sticks.’ Hicksville is on the railroad between Chicago and New York and vaudeville performers would stop off to perform there between the two cities,” he said.

Tickets are available for $25 at www. eventbrite.com, or $30 at the door.