Five questions with ... Michael Martin Murphey

A liberal dose

December 08, 2007

He's often billed as America's 'singing cowboy poet,' a laureate of the lariat. The 62-year-old Oak Cliff native makes his home in Wisconsin these days but remains firmly tied to the Lone Star State. Over a career that's spanned four decades, he's worked with everyone from the Monkees to Willie Nelson, but in recent years has favored working with symphonies and performing his 'Cowboy Christmas' concerts all over the country. Those Christmas shows are a Cowtown staple, and Murphey will return to Bass Hall on Monday for yet another.

1 So what is cowboy music, and how does it differ from folk or country?

Cowboy music is a combination of Irish, Scottish, Mexican and a few other ethnic groups' folk music, whereas country music's roots are more the white ethnic roots of the Appalachian range of the South. Cowboy music is a lot more about nature -- the 19th-century stuff is fairly sentimental and kind of startling in the sense that it talks about some pretty horrible conditions that cowboys worked under and brings out some of the realities they faced.

2 Is that realism what appeals to you most about cowboy music?

Honestly, it's the music of my people and my culture -- I grew up with it in Texas and I grew up around ranchers and veterinarians and I've lived the cowboy lifestyle all my life. ... It's the music of what I do and how I live. I think the reason it appeals to people outside of that is the connection to nature; it's kind of a refreshing respite from the usual subject matter of country music, which is dysfunctional relationships, depression, drinking, divorce. (laughs) It's a lot more fun to sing about a horse than it is to sing about that stuff.

3 How does that lifestyle and sound feed into the 'Cowboy Christmas'?

One of the first really popular Western poems ... was ... called The Cowboy's Christmas Ball, written in 1885 by [William Lawrence] 'Larry' Chittenden, who was a New York journalist that visited Texas and went to the very first Cowboy Christmas Ball. ... He was so impressed that he wrote this humorous poem that was published in The New York Times and The London Times and it made the ball famous, and he ended up publishing one of the first books of cowboy poetry. ... It's the essential song in our show and we do salute the tradition. The music that we play is the music of the old-time range.

4 Is there something about playing Bass Hall that elevates the event a bit?

Fort Worth is the greatest cowtown in America and maybe the world, so you're right in the middle of all things cowboy and all things Western. ... I've played Carnegie Hall ... the Morton Meyerson in Dallas ... the Lincoln Center ... some really fancy places that are supposed to have the greatest acoustics -- I've played a lot of great ones, but there is no better concert hall in America than Bass Hall. Acoustically, you can't beat it. You can get your message across better in that hall than anywhere.

5 What do you hope people come away from the 'Cowboy Christmas' feeling?

Very proud of Texas culture. Feeling proud of the Western roots of Texas and the cowboy roots of Texas -- that's our message, along with the real message of Christmas. People, a lot of times, ask me what does the cowboy have to do with Christmas? My reply is: I guarantee you, just as much as The Nutcracker has to do with Christmas or as much as the story of Scrooge has to do with Christmas.

Michael Martin Murphey's 'Cowboy Christmas' is at 7 p.m. Monday at Bass Hall. Tickets are $34.50-$75. 817-212-4280 ; www.basshall.com

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