Western music tastes best outdoors and Thursday night, Nov. 5, the award-winning Western singer Juni Fisher served up a great performance in the courtyard of La Hacienda de Sonoita.

Juni Fisher performs at La Hacienda de Sonoita. Photos / Marion Vendituoli

Fisher, the first woman and the first performer on an independent label to win the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s prestigious Wrangler Award, is nominated for songwriter of the year, female vocalist of the year, song of the year, album of the year and entertainer of the year by the Western Music Association.

Accompanied by her guitar, Fisher told stories and jokes and sang her ballads in the candlelit courtyard. It is not just her singing voice, which is brilliant, but it is her narrative voice that sets this performer apart.

Fisher does not approach her ballads straight on, but comes at her stories from surprising angles. She twisted the story from the old song “Sweet Betsy From Pike” so that it was told from the point of view of the Shanghai rooster, who escapes the cooking pot and the misfortunes of his fellow travelers to hide out in the sage.

She told the story of her great-grandfather’s journey as a young boy to become a cowboy in Colorado through the voice of his horse, an old nag the boy buys for a few coins. “And we all know what that first horse we can afford looks like,” Juni pointed out. The horse complains about his green rider, but says, “I guess I’ll let him ride. At least we’re going somewhere.”