Steel or Ivar Staale Langholen born. 1969

Hello. My name is Steel and it's the English translation of  Staale and that's the name I go by. The man from Mound Meadow Ranch, and I'm gonna tell you a little story about myself. I grew up in a big house in the town of Elverum in Norway, and I had a good life with my parents, brothers and a sister. I have always been a dreamer and I know dreams and nightmares can and will come through. That's why I live one day at the time like  THERE IS NO TOMORROW, but still I hope to live forever!

I do my best to make every day right although it's raining from morning to nigth(like in the song And i'm wondering from the  record Endless time). I was born in april 1969, and when I picked up the guitar when I was 9 years old and started to play, I had to play in the bathroom because no one wanted to listen to my noise. While I spent time in there I dreamt of being up on stage. I saw myself in front of the crowds; singing , playing and making people happy. And it happened in 1988. I was on stage with my first band Slyboots, and from there I just went on, playing as a trubadour and after a while with the band Pure & Simple. I recorded my first 5 songs with that band. We released the album Pure & Simple LIVE the same year. Pure & Simple lasted a few years from 1991 to 1999, when family and health issues and such, plus members moving to other places ended the band( see picture down below).

I started writing songs in the 80's and I've got more songs than I probably ever will get to record. When I touch the guitar at the right moment, a song will always appear. As magic in the night, a song will see the light, and wether it will be country, rock or blues I don't know, but it will come from my heart. I do not  know what's around the corner but I know there will always be another song.

I didn't just dream of being on stage. A ranch with horses riding wild and free, breathing the clean air and knowing life can be good. I married my wife in 1997, and the same year we bought a place that gave us the opportunity to make another dream come true. People in our town thought we were crazy building up a ranch in Norway(Tuvenga Ranch or Mound Meadow Ranch). We bought our first horse in 1999. It's an American Paint Horse www.apha.com  and later on another which we named Moonstar Shadow. From not knowing anything about a horse, I jumped into it. I read books from Pat Parelly and and many more to get the knowledge I needed to get my first horse called Wild Side Story saddle-broken the natural horse-man-ship way. Now we've got more horses and we're breeding on...

Mound Meadow Ranch

Pure & Simple 1998 

(From left. Bass: Kjell Arne Otterhøvg. Guitar: Kjetil Martinsen. Drums:  Jan Inge Larsen)