Neşet Ertaş (1938 – 25 September 2012) was a Turkish folk music singer, lyricist, modern ashik and virtuoso of the traditional Turkish instrument the bağlama. His profession in Turkish is known as halk ozanı, which literally means folk bard. Yaşar Kemal gave Ertaş his nickname, Bozkırın Tezenesi (literally: Plectrum of the Steppe), writing it in a book he gave him as a gift.