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Cowboy music is American music |
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Written by Glenn BurnSilver
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Thursday, 14 December 2006 |
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 What if Jesus was a cowboy?
No, that is not another one of those bumper stickers. But if that question was posed, cowboy poet, songwriter, storyteller, historian and ethnomusicologist Michael Martin Murphey would probably have the answer.
Murphey, who brings his Cowboy Christmas Ball to the Union Colony Civic Center Dec. 16, offers up an interesting view of the coming of Jesus, linking him to the first signs of egalitarianism.
“We don’t have the case here of a high born king. We have a guy being born in a manger with animals around,” he explained during a telephone interview. “The first news is to shepherds, not the media or royalty. There is something about the lowest guy on the totem pole getting the word first. Culturally, it is important that we have this story about this scraggly low-born fellow who is more important than all the others.”
Murphey finds similarities in the role and perception of cowboys in the old west. While the cowboys were vital parts of our nation’s growth and economic vitality, they often were regulated to second-tier status. Sure, the cowboy was at home on the range, but it is important to note that it was the cowboy who carried forth the music that reflected our nation at the time.
“Traditional cowboy music is the music of the men — and a few women — who worked in the cattle industry and went up and down the cattle trails of the 19th century,” Murphey said.
“The American cowboy singer is the quintessential balladeer for America. A cowboy song ostensibly tells of contact with nature and what is going on in a person’s life. It can be very nostalgic and sappy love songs. But mostly it is about nature, hard work and resolve, and that’s what attracts me to the music.”
It is a far cry from the general cowboy perceptions found in John Wayne movies or Roy Rogers and Dale Evans riding off into the TV sunset. Murphey’s connection to the cowboy lifestyle goes deeper — he lives it. Murphey grew up on a ranch in Texas, living the cowboy lifestyle, always wearing a cowboy hat. And it is a lifestyle — one he still adheres to — one he is attempting to preserve through music.
“I have a lifetime fascination with it, it is my cultural music. I grew up in Texas around cowboys, ranchers and Indians; it’s my backyard,” he said.
“I try to be the cowboy that somebody wants to listen to so they get something out of the music that means something in their personal life. Something about determination, individuality and independence in the songs appeals to all people in the human spirit. I’m not saying cowboy music is better than other music, it’s just as good—and I am trying to showcase that.”
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TO GO TO THE SHOW
• Michael Martin Murphey’s Cowboy
Christmas Ball
• 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16
• Union Colony Civic Center, 701 10th Ave., Greeley
• $15-$30; Center Circle $75
• 800.315.2787 or 356.5000
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SONG CATCHES ON LIKE WILDFIRE
Though singer-songwriter Michael Martin Murphey grew up on a ranch in Texas, it wasn’t until after his career as a pop star faded that he returned to his cowboy music roots. In the 1970s, at the peak of country-rock popularity, Murphey had hits with “Carolina in the Pines” and “Geronimo’s Cadillac,” but it was “Wildfire” that raised his star power.
“I never believed that ‘Wildfire’ could make it as a pop song,” he recalled with a laugh. “It was an obscure mystical song of the west, a ghost story that had nothing to do with me. It is just one of those flukes. I mean, Wildfire is No. 4 in airplay in all songs in all genres in history. That is totally astounding to me—and my producer told me not to put it on the album. That was right during the disco era and it had to compete with dance bands on the charts. It was the anti-disco. For everybody who backlashed against disco, they bought ‘Wildfire’.”
Glenn BurnSilver
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COWBOY MISPERCEPTIONS
While the general perception of cowboys is what we see on TV and movies, Murphey notes cowboy music was not limited to the oft-depicted acoustic number sung around the campfire. Rather it included contributions from ethnic cowboys that added Mexican mariachi, German polkas, Irish jigs and African ballads and blues.
“It is Latino music, black music and Celtic music that makes cowboy music sound different and gives it its traditional sound,” he said. “And it may morph at any given time into something that sounds like a Mexican song to something that sounds like an Irish ballad to something that sounds more bluesy.”
Glenn BurnSilver
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