AI
Monday, August 12, 2002 12:17:41 AM
MICHAEL MARTIN MURPHEY
THE HORSE LEGENDS ALBUM
"Riding horses and ranching have always been among the greatest pleasurable activities in my life, so I dedicated an entire album to the music of one of the world's most-remarkable creatures," states Michael Martin Murphey. "Throughout history the horse has been a serious force in shaping humankind. This is celebrated in thousands of years of legends, stories, ancient and modern art, poetry, films and songs. This is my tribute. I call it The Horse Legends."
Murphey -- writer, singer, instrumentalist, actor, filmmaker, cowboy/rancher and scholar in Western studies (adjunct professor at Utah State University) -- is today's leading cowboy music singer and representative of the culture of the American West. His legacy -- albums, concerts, WestFest outdoor festivals, film and television productions, Western books-on-tape, musical performances on horseback at rodeos, and environmentally-friendly ranching -- has made him the most honored champion of the American West today. Both an Academy of Country Music award winner and National Cowboy Hall of Fame four-time award winner, Murphey is the consummate Western entertainer.
"The idea behind the world throughout history, but because my orientation is to the Western United States, most of the songs are set here," explains Murphey. "I tried to cover many different situations with horses -- people moving West in the 1800s, special breeds, the relationship of children and ponies, the Native American vision, horse-racing both 150 years ago and today, the general popularity of riding quarter horses, and, of course, cowboys and their mounts album is to pay tribute to all types of horses from all over.
The Horse Legends on Warner Western contains Murphey's versions of four classic horse tunes -- Jimmie Driftwood's "Tennessee Stud" (featuring a duet with Johnny Cash), Dan Fogelberg's "Run For the Roses," Gordon Lightfoot's "The Pony Man" and Jeff Hawthorne Bullock's "Ponies." Murphey's own classic, the top pop hit "Wildfire," is included in a new, mostly acoustic version. The remaining five compositions also are Murphey originals including the crowd-pleasing concert favorites "Running Shadow" and "The Running Blood."
The Horse Legends is an album for the millions of people in the world who love horses, for both occasional and avid riders, for the person who stops his car alongside a field to watch a horse frolicking, for the fans who follow horse-racing, for anyone who read the book "Black Beauty" or watched the film "National Velvet," and for all of the cowboys keeping the Western spirit alive (on the range, in rodeos and even from urban areas). Old and new legends capture the spirit and importance of horses to our lives, now and throughout history. Michael Martin Murphey has created a monumental, magical album-length ode to humankind's close-knit relationship with the horse.
"For many millenniums people depended on horses, and horses were an integral part of our existence," Murphey explains. "Horses were our main transportation which meant they were essential for communication, exploration, trading, war, and the migration of large groups of people to new territories. Humans have always paid tribute to horses. Cavemen painted horses on cave walls, the Pegasus was a part of Greek mythology, the tales of 'A Thousand and One Nights' and the Knights of the Round Table both included horses, and every great emperor or military hero tended to have a horse associated with him."
Murphey, who was born and raised in Texas, began riding horses on his grandfather's and uncle's ranches when he was six-years-old. From his cousin, who was a horse and cow veterinarian, Michael learned about a horse's quality based on physical characteristics. Michael did a lot of riding at the Sky Ranch in Lewisville, Texas, where he spent his summers as both a camper and then a counselor. On his families' ranches, he first heard cowboy songs sung by the ranch-hands and at the Sky Ranch Michael began singing cowboy-and-western tunes himself around the evening campfires. Several times his parents took him on vacation to the Rocky Mountains to go on trail rides. "When I was young, I fell in love with horses, the cowboy lifestyle and Western music, and it set the course for my whole life. My dream was to have a ranch and horses when I grew up."
He went to college at North Texas State ("where I majored in jam sessions") and UCLA, where his musical career continued as a member of the folk-rock group the Lewis and Clark Expedition, named after the pioneers of the West. In 1971, he moved back to Texas and sparked the burgeoning Austin music scene and the famed Outlaw movement that led to a revolutionary country-rock sound. The next year he released his debut solo album and had his first hit with the title track, "Geronimo's Cadillac," which quickly turned into an anthem for the Native American rights movement. "The photo of me on the cover was taken in Oklahoma just moments after I stepped down from riding a horse." Beginning with that first album and its follow-up (Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir), Western themes have always permeated Murphey's recordings.
Michael moved to Colorado in 1973. By the mid-Seventies, Murphey was established as a major hitmaker with the pop smash "Wildfire" and the follow-up hit "Carolina in the Pines" from the Gold Album Blue Sky - Night Thunder. His next album, Swans Against the Sun, had special guests like Willie Nelson and contained the tunes "Renegade" and "Wild West Show."
Within a few years, Murphey also validated his country music credentials with such hits as "Cherokee Fiddle" and "A Mansion on the Hill." His first Number One country song, "What's Forever For," came in 1982 and was followed by such memorable hits as "Still Taking Chances," "Will It Be Love by Morning," "Disenchanted," "What She Wants," "A Long Line of Love," "I'm Gonna Miss You, Girl," "From the Word Go," "Talkin' to the Wrong Man" and "Cowboy Logic." He has had 20 Top 10 pop and country hits.
Today's best-known and best-selling cowboy singer, Murphey has released more than two dozen albums during the past 25 years. His latest recordings make up a classic "Cowboy Songs" series of albums featuring both standards from the past and hot new cowboy music. The series began at the beginning of the Nineties with Cowboy Songs which was followed by Cowboy Christmas: Cowboy Songs II, Cowboy Songs III: Rhymes of the Renegades, Sagebrush Symphony, and now The Horse Legends. Murphey also has begun a series of spoken-word recordings featuring him reading classic, non-fiction of the West accompanied by his musical scores.
In 1978, Murphey became a rancher in Taos, Red River and Jal, New Mexico, where he started a horse and cattle operation, the Rocking 3M Brand Ranching Company. "When it's time to round up the cattle every year, you have to get up on a horse and go out and find them. Everyone in the county there helps out. The riding, the branding work, the chuck-wagon, campfires and ranch suppers are a time of reuniting with friends, reconnecting to nature and remembering our Western cultural heritage."
In the Eighties, his son entered the world of show horses giving Michael firsthand experience in this popular pastime. In 1986, when the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), one of the largest horse groups in the world, celebrated their Fiftieth Anniversary, Murphey was chosen to be a spokesperson for the organization. His commitment to the group during the following decade led to his being made a "Lifetime Member" in 1996, an honor awarded to only a half-dozen others in the previous 60 years. To help raise funds for the AQHA, Murphey allowed them to exclusively market The Horse Legends album (under the title America's Horses) for a year before releasing the music to the general public.
For the past decade, Murphey has been performing some of his concerts from horseback. After a year of training and rehearsing, he did his first horseback concert (using cordless microphones for his singing and his acoustic guitar) at the New Mexico State Fair in front of 15,000 people. Murphey also was one of the first entertainers to ever perform music in the main arena at the National Finals Rodeo. Some of his most memorable shows have been at the World Quarter Horse Show in Oklahoma City, the Houston Livestock Show in the Astrodome (two shows per day with 40,000 at each show), and the National Western Stock Show in Denver.
Murphey has used horses in many of his music videos ("Cowboy Logic," "Big Iron") and TV specials (a TNN show on a "Cattle Drive and Musical Trail Ride" in 1992 with Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Randy Travis and Holly Dunn; and a TNN special on Murphey's Colorado WestFest in 1995). Riding horses also played a part in Murphey's appearance on a nationally-syndicated television show when he had a guest-starring role (that he created) with "Lonesome Dove: The Series" in which he played a guitar-playing, singing cowboy and Pinkerton detective. In addition, he has narrated and scored documentaries such as "Great Ranches of the West" for PBS and "Cowboys of the Americas" which aired on The Disney Channel.
During the past decade, horses also have been part of Michael Martin Murphey's WestFest -- a celebration of the art, culture and music of the Old and New West. This traveling festival, a modern-day version of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show, not only features cowboys, Indians, mountain men, art and crafts exhibits, western food and great music, but also horseback trail rides and campfire concerts in close-by wilderness areas.
"When people see a horse running, it fires up their imagination," says Murphey. "A horse is a symbol of freedom. For the past two hundred years in America, we have used horses to herd cattle and that's how the cowboy was born. Now, of course, cowboys and horses are intrinsically linked, and are both a big part of the Western experience representing much of what is best about the culture of the West -- wide open spaces, personal freedom, hard work and a closeness to nature.
"I hope that when people listen to The Horse Legends album, they get a feeling for the scenery, spirit and lifestyle of the West, and the part that horses play in it. Each song is like a short story about a particular horse or type of horse. These are some of their many legends. Getting out in open country while riding a horse is one of my favorite things in life. Music is another. With this album, I was fortunate enough to be able to use one thing I love to celebrate another."
(Previous Bio Information Follows)
On Cowboy Songs III - Rhymes of the Renegades, Michael Martin Murphey puts on his black hat, pulls up his bandanna, takes aim and blows a few big holes in the Hollywood myth about Old West outlaws and gunfighters.
In a follow-up to his acclaimed Cowboy Songs I and Cowboy Songs II - Cowboy Christmas albums, Murphey moves away from songs about working cowboys and ranchers to focus on the lives of infamous Western outlaws. By blending traditional folk ballads with original songs, he gallops beyond the fictional fables and sticks a spur in the old legends, he examines the true tales of these celebrated men and women and delves into the culture, social climate and political forces that shaped their lives.
“When I did the first two albums, I was determined not to deal with guns and robberies and stage coaches and Indian fights, because those are the clichés of the Old West,” Murphey explains. “But as I was doing my research, I found out that the real stories behind these famous outlaws are absolutely more fantastic than the myths that have been created.”
Eventually, Murphey discovered that the old, traditional ballads tended to stick closer to the truth than the superficial stories passed along in movies, books and magazines.
“I finally came to the conclusion that I wanted to create an album that put people like Frank and Jesse James, Billy the Kid and Belle Starr in the right context,” Murphey explains. “Hollywood made up this image of a cowboy with a six shooter strapped to his hip. The truth is, there were plenty of working ranchers and cowboys who never owned a gun. The movies and the dime-store novels distorted the lives of real people to create mythological legends. They took out the human quality. The old ballads, I discovered, better represent the character of these people than most of the films. They come closer to telling the real story, and they include the element of tragedy that was part of all these outlaws’ lives. I thought that needed to be brought out.”
The result, Cowboy Songs III- Rhymes of the Renegades, is the third in a series of albums spotlighting traditional Western music, continuing a project that the veteran Southwestern artist calls “my most deeply heartfelt work.” A ranch owner in Taos, New Mexico, since 1978, Murphey calls his cowboy trilogy “the music of my people, my land, my culture and my own life.”
The album features many beloved American folk music standards, including “Birmingham Jail,” “Streets of Laredo,” “Prisoner’s Song,” “Strawberry Roan,” “Ghost Riders” and such outlaw classics as “Billy the Kid,” Jesse James,” “Cole Younger” and “Sam Bass.” (Almost all of the outlaw songs were written in the 1800’s with a few exceptions like “Belle Starr”.)
An album of Western outlaw music wouldn’t be complete without a song by the late Marty Robbins, and Cowboy Songs III - Rhymes of the Renegades allowed Murphey the opportunity to realize a dream of a lifetime.
In researching the song possibilities of the Robbins’ catalog, Murphey discovered that Robbins was among the first artists in Nashville and in country music to utilize multi-track recording. While Cowboy Songs III - Rhymes of the Renegades does include Murphey’s own revamped version of Robbins’ classic “El Paso,” it also presented the chance to record a duet with his idol on Robbins’ famous gunfighter ballad, “Big Iron” (a 1960 country hit).
“That was probably the greatest honor I’ve been afforded in my life,” Murphey says of the hi-tech duet. “To be able to sing a duet, albeit posthumously, with my hero Marty Robbins. I think he was the greatest country singer and one of the greatest pop singers ever. He came from Arizona, and he brought with him to Nashville what is essentially a Southern City, at a time when most people were encouraging him not to do it.”
On the original songs, in Cowboy Songs III - Rhymes of the Renegades, Murphey blends a couple of other fact-based outlaw stories (his own 7-minute epic “Belle Starr” and Hal Ketchum’s wistful “Frank James’ Farewell”) with several other songs that confer a more general feel for the Old West lifestyle.
“The traditional songs are very old-fashioned in their phraseology, and they’re poetic and so linear in how they tell a story,” Murphey says. “I thought the contemporary stuff should offer more of a psychological view.” These range from the wise advice an old bandito gives a lovestruck young man on “Roses and Thorns” to the boot-scootin’ fun-lovin-romp of “The West is Gonna Get Wilder” to the poignantly pensive “Queen of Heartaches.” In all, Cowboys Songs III - Rhymes of the Renegades is a powerful continuation of the series that Murphey began when he issued the critically acclaimed, and commercially successful Cowboy Songs in 1990. That album was the culmination of three years of research on the Old West. For Murphey, the experience turned to music and history of the American Frontier into primary focus of his creative life.
His activities are multi-dimensional. His highly popular Westfest events spotlight the music, art and culture of both the Old and New West; he is chairman of the National Indian Education Association; he is on the board of annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering; he is a part of the Holistic Resource Management Institute, which encourages environmentally sound ranching; he has received the New Mexico Department of Agriculture’s Governor’s Award for his role as a spokesman for agriculture; and his two previous cowboy albums have received the Heritage Award of the Cowboy Hall of Fame. “Researching the West has totally changed my life,” Murphey says. “I would encourage everyone that, if they ever got a chance to look into their roots of their history, do it. You’ll walk away with a changed view of the society you live in today.”
Murphey, throughout his career, has displayed his affinity for the Old and New West. He first began entertaining while sitting around a campfire at the Sky Ranch in Lewisville, Texas, where he performed old cowboy songs. While attending UCLA , he was a member of the folk-rock group the Lewis and Clark Expedition, named after the pioneers of the West.
In 1971, he moved back to Texas and joined the burgeoning Austin Music scene, which engendered the famed Outlaw movement that revolutionized country music and impacted rock music throughout the 1970’s. Murphey’s first hit, 1972’s “Geronimo’s Cadillac,” quickly turned into an anthem for the Indian rights movement and made his a central figure in the Austin scene.
It was three years and three albums later that Murphey established himself as a major hitmaker with the Top 10 smash “Wildfire” and the follow-up hit, “Carolina in the Pines.” Within years, he also validated his country credentials with such hits as “Cherokee Fiddle” and “A Mansion on the Hill.”
His first Number One country song, “What’s Forever For,” came in 1982 and has been followed by such memorable hits as “Still Taking Chances,” “Disenchanted,” “Will it be Love by Morning,” “What She Wants,” “A Long Line of Love,” “I’m Gonna Miss You Girl,” “Never Givin Up,” “Talkin’ to the Wrong Man,” “From the Word Go” and “Cowboy Logic.”
However, Murphey has always been determined to reach those listeners who yearn to reach beyond the current hits and find music that taps into a deeper part of the soul. “I think the sales of my cowboy albums prove there is a hunger out there for history and roots and analysis of who we are and what we are all about,” he says. “These albums didn’t make it because of hit records on the radio. There are hundreds of thousands of people out there who seek out music that strikes them on a deep level. Those are the people who I want to connect with.”
PERSONAL:
Born March 14, 1945, in Dallas, Texas
Education North Texas State University, studying Humanities UCLA, BA in Creative Writing
Family Life Long-married to the lovely Mary Maciukus, once a Wilhelmina model.
Home They reside in Taos, New Mexico with their children.
Attributes 5’9” tall
155 pounds
Blonde hair
Blue eyes
Hobbies likes to ride horses, snowshoe, run, or read.
Current Proj working on his first book for publication.
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=1066
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=1124
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=1142
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=1148
THE HORSE LEGENDS ALBUM
"Riding horses and ranching have always been among the greatest pleasurable activities in my life, so I dedicated an entire album to the music of one of the world's most-remarkable creatures," states Michael Martin Murphey. "Throughout history the horse has been a serious force in shaping humankind. This is celebrated in thousands of years of legends, stories, ancient and modern art, poetry, films and songs. This is my tribute. I call it The Horse Legends."
Murphey -- writer, singer, instrumentalist, actor, filmmaker, cowboy/rancher and scholar in Western studies (adjunct professor at Utah State University) -- is today's leading cowboy music singer and representative of the culture of the American West. His legacy -- albums, concerts, WestFest outdoor festivals, film and television productions, Western books-on-tape, musical performances on horseback at rodeos, and environmentally-friendly ranching -- has made him the most honored champion of the American West today. Both an Academy of Country Music award winner and National Cowboy Hall of Fame four-time award winner, Murphey is the consummate Western entertainer.
"The idea behind the world throughout history, but because my orientation is to the Western United States, most of the songs are set here," explains Murphey. "I tried to cover many different situations with horses -- people moving West in the 1800s, special breeds, the relationship of children and ponies, the Native American vision, horse-racing both 150 years ago and today, the general popularity of riding quarter horses, and, of course, cowboys and their mounts album is to pay tribute to all types of horses from all over.
The Horse Legends on Warner Western contains Murphey's versions of four classic horse tunes -- Jimmie Driftwood's "Tennessee Stud" (featuring a duet with Johnny Cash), Dan Fogelberg's "Run For the Roses," Gordon Lightfoot's "The Pony Man" and Jeff Hawthorne Bullock's "Ponies." Murphey's own classic, the top pop hit "Wildfire," is included in a new, mostly acoustic version. The remaining five compositions also are Murphey originals including the crowd-pleasing concert favorites "Running Shadow" and "The Running Blood."
The Horse Legends is an album for the millions of people in the world who love horses, for both occasional and avid riders, for the person who stops his car alongside a field to watch a horse frolicking, for the fans who follow horse-racing, for anyone who read the book "Black Beauty" or watched the film "National Velvet," and for all of the cowboys keeping the Western spirit alive (on the range, in rodeos and even from urban areas). Old and new legends capture the spirit and importance of horses to our lives, now and throughout history. Michael Martin Murphey has created a monumental, magical album-length ode to humankind's close-knit relationship with the horse.
"For many millenniums people depended on horses, and horses were an integral part of our existence," Murphey explains. "Horses were our main transportation which meant they were essential for communication, exploration, trading, war, and the migration of large groups of people to new territories. Humans have always paid tribute to horses. Cavemen painted horses on cave walls, the Pegasus was a part of Greek mythology, the tales of 'A Thousand and One Nights' and the Knights of the Round Table both included horses, and every great emperor or military hero tended to have a horse associated with him."
Murphey, who was born and raised in Texas, began riding horses on his grandfather's and uncle's ranches when he was six-years-old. From his cousin, who was a horse and cow veterinarian, Michael learned about a horse's quality based on physical characteristics. Michael did a lot of riding at the Sky Ranch in Lewisville, Texas, where he spent his summers as both a camper and then a counselor. On his families' ranches, he first heard cowboy songs sung by the ranch-hands and at the Sky Ranch Michael began singing cowboy-and-western tunes himself around the evening campfires. Several times his parents took him on vacation to the Rocky Mountains to go on trail rides. "When I was young, I fell in love with horses, the cowboy lifestyle and Western music, and it set the course for my whole life. My dream was to have a ranch and horses when I grew up."
He went to college at North Texas State ("where I majored in jam sessions") and UCLA, where his musical career continued as a member of the folk-rock group the Lewis and Clark Expedition, named after the pioneers of the West. In 1971, he moved back to Texas and sparked the burgeoning Austin music scene and the famed Outlaw movement that led to a revolutionary country-rock sound. The next year he released his debut solo album and had his first hit with the title track, "Geronimo's Cadillac," which quickly turned into an anthem for the Native American rights movement. "The photo of me on the cover was taken in Oklahoma just moments after I stepped down from riding a horse." Beginning with that first album and its follow-up (Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir), Western themes have always permeated Murphey's recordings.
Michael moved to Colorado in 1973. By the mid-Seventies, Murphey was established as a major hitmaker with the pop smash "Wildfire" and the follow-up hit "Carolina in the Pines" from the Gold Album Blue Sky - Night Thunder. His next album, Swans Against the Sun, had special guests like Willie Nelson and contained the tunes "Renegade" and "Wild West Show."
Within a few years, Murphey also validated his country music credentials with such hits as "Cherokee Fiddle" and "A Mansion on the Hill." His first Number One country song, "What's Forever For," came in 1982 and was followed by such memorable hits as "Still Taking Chances," "Will It Be Love by Morning," "Disenchanted," "What She Wants," "A Long Line of Love," "I'm Gonna Miss You, Girl," "From the Word Go," "Talkin' to the Wrong Man" and "Cowboy Logic." He has had 20 Top 10 pop and country hits.
Today's best-known and best-selling cowboy singer, Murphey has released more than two dozen albums during the past 25 years. His latest recordings make up a classic "Cowboy Songs" series of albums featuring both standards from the past and hot new cowboy music. The series began at the beginning of the Nineties with Cowboy Songs which was followed by Cowboy Christmas: Cowboy Songs II, Cowboy Songs III: Rhymes of the Renegades, Sagebrush Symphony, and now The Horse Legends. Murphey also has begun a series of spoken-word recordings featuring him reading classic, non-fiction of the West accompanied by his musical scores.
In 1978, Murphey became a rancher in Taos, Red River and Jal, New Mexico, where he started a horse and cattle operation, the Rocking 3M Brand Ranching Company. "When it's time to round up the cattle every year, you have to get up on a horse and go out and find them. Everyone in the county there helps out. The riding, the branding work, the chuck-wagon, campfires and ranch suppers are a time of reuniting with friends, reconnecting to nature and remembering our Western cultural heritage."
In the Eighties, his son entered the world of show horses giving Michael firsthand experience in this popular pastime. In 1986, when the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), one of the largest horse groups in the world, celebrated their Fiftieth Anniversary, Murphey was chosen to be a spokesperson for the organization. His commitment to the group during the following decade led to his being made a "Lifetime Member" in 1996, an honor awarded to only a half-dozen others in the previous 60 years. To help raise funds for the AQHA, Murphey allowed them to exclusively market The Horse Legends album (under the title America's Horses) for a year before releasing the music to the general public.
For the past decade, Murphey has been performing some of his concerts from horseback. After a year of training and rehearsing, he did his first horseback concert (using cordless microphones for his singing and his acoustic guitar) at the New Mexico State Fair in front of 15,000 people. Murphey also was one of the first entertainers to ever perform music in the main arena at the National Finals Rodeo. Some of his most memorable shows have been at the World Quarter Horse Show in Oklahoma City, the Houston Livestock Show in the Astrodome (two shows per day with 40,000 at each show), and the National Western Stock Show in Denver.
Murphey has used horses in many of his music videos ("Cowboy Logic," "Big Iron") and TV specials (a TNN show on a "Cattle Drive and Musical Trail Ride" in 1992 with Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Randy Travis and Holly Dunn; and a TNN special on Murphey's Colorado WestFest in 1995). Riding horses also played a part in Murphey's appearance on a nationally-syndicated television show when he had a guest-starring role (that he created) with "Lonesome Dove: The Series" in which he played a guitar-playing, singing cowboy and Pinkerton detective. In addition, he has narrated and scored documentaries such as "Great Ranches of the West" for PBS and "Cowboys of the Americas" which aired on The Disney Channel.
During the past decade, horses also have been part of Michael Martin Murphey's WestFest -- a celebration of the art, culture and music of the Old and New West. This traveling festival, a modern-day version of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show, not only features cowboys, Indians, mountain men, art and crafts exhibits, western food and great music, but also horseback trail rides and campfire concerts in close-by wilderness areas.
"When people see a horse running, it fires up their imagination," says Murphey. "A horse is a symbol of freedom. For the past two hundred years in America, we have used horses to herd cattle and that's how the cowboy was born. Now, of course, cowboys and horses are intrinsically linked, and are both a big part of the Western experience representing much of what is best about the culture of the West -- wide open spaces, personal freedom, hard work and a closeness to nature.
"I hope that when people listen to The Horse Legends album, they get a feeling for the scenery, spirit and lifestyle of the West, and the part that horses play in it. Each song is like a short story about a particular horse or type of horse. These are some of their many legends. Getting out in open country while riding a horse is one of my favorite things in life. Music is another. With this album, I was fortunate enough to be able to use one thing I love to celebrate another."
(Previous Bio Information Follows)
On Cowboy Songs III - Rhymes of the Renegades, Michael Martin Murphey puts on his black hat, pulls up his bandanna, takes aim and blows a few big holes in the Hollywood myth about Old West outlaws and gunfighters.
In a follow-up to his acclaimed Cowboy Songs I and Cowboy Songs II - Cowboy Christmas albums, Murphey moves away from songs about working cowboys and ranchers to focus on the lives of infamous Western outlaws. By blending traditional folk ballads with original songs, he gallops beyond the fictional fables and sticks a spur in the old legends, he examines the true tales of these celebrated men and women and delves into the culture, social climate and political forces that shaped their lives.
“When I did the first two albums, I was determined not to deal with guns and robberies and stage coaches and Indian fights, because those are the clichés of the Old West,” Murphey explains. “But as I was doing my research, I found out that the real stories behind these famous outlaws are absolutely more fantastic than the myths that have been created.”
Eventually, Murphey discovered that the old, traditional ballads tended to stick closer to the truth than the superficial stories passed along in movies, books and magazines.
“I finally came to the conclusion that I wanted to create an album that put people like Frank and Jesse James, Billy the Kid and Belle Starr in the right context,” Murphey explains. “Hollywood made up this image of a cowboy with a six shooter strapped to his hip. The truth is, there were plenty of working ranchers and cowboys who never owned a gun. The movies and the dime-store novels distorted the lives of real people to create mythological legends. They took out the human quality. The old ballads, I discovered, better represent the character of these people than most of the films. They come closer to telling the real story, and they include the element of tragedy that was part of all these outlaws’ lives. I thought that needed to be brought out.”
The result, Cowboy Songs III- Rhymes of the Renegades, is the third in a series of albums spotlighting traditional Western music, continuing a project that the veteran Southwestern artist calls “my most deeply heartfelt work.” A ranch owner in Taos, New Mexico, since 1978, Murphey calls his cowboy trilogy “the music of my people, my land, my culture and my own life.”
The album features many beloved American folk music standards, including “Birmingham Jail,” “Streets of Laredo,” “Prisoner’s Song,” “Strawberry Roan,” “Ghost Riders” and such outlaw classics as “Billy the Kid,” Jesse James,” “Cole Younger” and “Sam Bass.” (Almost all of the outlaw songs were written in the 1800’s with a few exceptions like “Belle Starr”.)
An album of Western outlaw music wouldn’t be complete without a song by the late Marty Robbins, and Cowboy Songs III - Rhymes of the Renegades allowed Murphey the opportunity to realize a dream of a lifetime.
In researching the song possibilities of the Robbins’ catalog, Murphey discovered that Robbins was among the first artists in Nashville and in country music to utilize multi-track recording. While Cowboy Songs III - Rhymes of the Renegades does include Murphey’s own revamped version of Robbins’ classic “El Paso,” it also presented the chance to record a duet with his idol on Robbins’ famous gunfighter ballad, “Big Iron” (a 1960 country hit).
“That was probably the greatest honor I’ve been afforded in my life,” Murphey says of the hi-tech duet. “To be able to sing a duet, albeit posthumously, with my hero Marty Robbins. I think he was the greatest country singer and one of the greatest pop singers ever. He came from Arizona, and he brought with him to Nashville what is essentially a Southern City, at a time when most people were encouraging him not to do it.”
On the original songs, in Cowboy Songs III - Rhymes of the Renegades, Murphey blends a couple of other fact-based outlaw stories (his own 7-minute epic “Belle Starr” and Hal Ketchum’s wistful “Frank James’ Farewell”) with several other songs that confer a more general feel for the Old West lifestyle.
“The traditional songs are very old-fashioned in their phraseology, and they’re poetic and so linear in how they tell a story,” Murphey says. “I thought the contemporary stuff should offer more of a psychological view.” These range from the wise advice an old bandito gives a lovestruck young man on “Roses and Thorns” to the boot-scootin’ fun-lovin-romp of “The West is Gonna Get Wilder” to the poignantly pensive “Queen of Heartaches.” In all, Cowboys Songs III - Rhymes of the Renegades is a powerful continuation of the series that Murphey began when he issued the critically acclaimed, and commercially successful Cowboy Songs in 1990. That album was the culmination of three years of research on the Old West. For Murphey, the experience turned to music and history of the American Frontier into primary focus of his creative life.
His activities are multi-dimensional. His highly popular Westfest events spotlight the music, art and culture of both the Old and New West; he is chairman of the National Indian Education Association; he is on the board of annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering; he is a part of the Holistic Resource Management Institute, which encourages environmentally sound ranching; he has received the New Mexico Department of Agriculture’s Governor’s Award for his role as a spokesman for agriculture; and his two previous cowboy albums have received the Heritage Award of the Cowboy Hall of Fame. “Researching the West has totally changed my life,” Murphey says. “I would encourage everyone that, if they ever got a chance to look into their roots of their history, do it. You’ll walk away with a changed view of the society you live in today.”
Murphey, throughout his career, has displayed his affinity for the Old and New West. He first began entertaining while sitting around a campfire at the Sky Ranch in Lewisville, Texas, where he performed old cowboy songs. While attending UCLA , he was a member of the folk-rock group the Lewis and Clark Expedition, named after the pioneers of the West.
In 1971, he moved back to Texas and joined the burgeoning Austin Music scene, which engendered the famed Outlaw movement that revolutionized country music and impacted rock music throughout the 1970’s. Murphey’s first hit, 1972’s “Geronimo’s Cadillac,” quickly turned into an anthem for the Indian rights movement and made his a central figure in the Austin scene.
It was three years and three albums later that Murphey established himself as a major hitmaker with the Top 10 smash “Wildfire” and the follow-up hit, “Carolina in the Pines.” Within years, he also validated his country credentials with such hits as “Cherokee Fiddle” and “A Mansion on the Hill.”
His first Number One country song, “What’s Forever For,” came in 1982 and has been followed by such memorable hits as “Still Taking Chances,” “Disenchanted,” “Will it be Love by Morning,” “What She Wants,” “A Long Line of Love,” “I’m Gonna Miss You Girl,” “Never Givin Up,” “Talkin’ to the Wrong Man,” “From the Word Go” and “Cowboy Logic.”
However, Murphey has always been determined to reach those listeners who yearn to reach beyond the current hits and find music that taps into a deeper part of the soul. “I think the sales of my cowboy albums prove there is a hunger out there for history and roots and analysis of who we are and what we are all about,” he says. “These albums didn’t make it because of hit records on the radio. There are hundreds of thousands of people out there who seek out music that strikes them on a deep level. Those are the people who I want to connect with.”
PERSONAL:
Born March 14, 1945, in Dallas, Texas
Education North Texas State University, studying Humanities UCLA, BA in Creative Writing
Family Life Long-married to the lovely Mary Maciukus, once a Wilhelmina model.
Home They reside in Taos, New Mexico with their children.
Attributes 5’9” tall
155 pounds
Blonde hair
Blue eyes
Hobbies likes to ride horses, snowshoe, run, or read.
Current Proj working on his first book for publication.
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=1066
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=1124
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=1142
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=1148
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
