Michael Martin Murphey captivated a sold out audience at the Pearson Lakes Art Center Wednesday night and taught us all a new songwriting perspective in the process.
The writer of such awesome hits as “Wildfire”, “Cowboy Logic” and the theme from “American Heartland” showed us how he put his hopes and dreams for our country and the environment into his lyrics for us all to understand. The audience cheered very appreciatively to his thoughts and dreams for the future.
Murphey was quiet and very laid back in his delivery and highly interesting to listen to as he talked about his past and his friendship with many notable names in the entertainment industry such as the late John Denver. His rendition of “Mansion On The Hill” was wonderful. He told us they (Denver and Murphey) recorded the original version with one guitar and one harmonica.
His song “Cherokee Fiddle” was redone by John Travolta in the movie “Urban Cowboy” and Murphey told us he liked Travolta’s version quite well. I liked the version he sang for us better.
His trek around the country performing is called “The Lone Cowboy Tour” and he used the opportunity to teach us the difference between ‘country’ and ‘western’ music. While many of Murphey’s songs ranked high on the pop charts; ‘western’ music is near and dear to his heart.
Iowa RockNRoll Hall of Fame DeeJay Dale Wood introduced the star. Wood was a fan of his music while playing tune on the air on KWMT in Fort Dodge. Wood remains a stalwart fan today.
Denver chose to sing Murphey’s song when he was testifying before the United States Congress. The song was about Murphey’s hero, St. Francis, who he says “taught people to worship God through nature.”
Residing on a mountain in Colorado, the star made a trip to Nashville to record “Geronimo’s Cadillac” when the Native Americans were trying to recover what had been taken from them back in the 1970’s. He was made an honorary Native American and learned many of their chants. He sang a song for us that included chanting and it was beautiful to hear.
Murphey’s Foundation for the Promotion of Western Heritage was the beneficiary of the silent auction of a guitar upon which the singer/songwriter had written lyrics to a song and then autographed. The guitar garnered $1,100 for the WH Foundation.
The second half of the show was entirely about what he called cowboy music. “Murph” as he friends refer to him, sang about where cowboys go when they die. He did it with a keen sense of humor. He even got down on his knees for a portion of the number. It was very funny.
Murphey concluded his performance with everyone’s all time favorite “Wildfire.” After a rousing standing ovation, he returned and got the audience to sing along for a while. I think my favorite song of the night was his theme from “American Heartland.” He sounded like he was singing it from his soul. We got his message and we loved his music. No one left the art center disappointed.