Eliza Blue performs, shares a look inside her life on the prairie
Eliza Blue is a shepherd, writer, and folk singer who lives on a ranch in South Dakota with her husband and two children. The ranch has been in her husband’s family for five generations, but Eliza took a more circuitous route to South Dakota, growing up and living in cities before what she thought was a sabbatical from city life became a life on the prairie.
At Rural Assembly Everywhere, Eliza shared both a performance and a glimpse into her favorite place.
Blue writes a column for newspapers in her region and produces audio commentary for South Dakota Public Radio. In 2020, she published a book “The Accidental Rancher.” She is also contributing columnist to our media partner, The Daily Yonder, and was a recent guest on Everywhere Radio with Whitney Kimball Coe.
Video: "Follow Me" by Eliza Blue and The Wild Violets
At Rural Assembly Everywhere: The Road to Repair, Eliza shared a performance from Slim Buttes in Harding County, South Dakota. The song, “Follow Me” is about the biodiversity of the short grass prairie.
“I have to say, I don’t know there are many folk songs dedicated to biodiversity, but maybe we’ll start a trend,” she said. This video performance premiered at Rural Assembly Everywhere: The Road to Repair, in April 2021.
Video: Eliza Blue "My Favorite Place"
Eliza shares this look inside her life in South Dakota, on a small grass-fed cattle and sheep farm, where her husband’s great-grandparents were the original homesteaders.
“It’s a complicated legacy and a big responsibility to know the decisions we make are impacting life on a microscopic level like microbes in the soil all the way up to the sheep and the cows.” This video performance premiered at Rural Assembly Everywhere: The Road to Repair, in April 2021.
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