Wednesday, November 25, 1998
Cowboy croons country tunes for Christmas concert
CAMPUS: UCLA alumnus brings authentic songs home for the
holidays
By Stacy Sare
Daily Bruin Contributor
Michael Martin Murphey doesn’t just sing cowboy songs and recite
rural poetry – he is a cowboy.
Life-long rancher Murphey, whose "Cowboy Christmas Concert" tour
roams to Schoenberg Hall Friday night, began performing cowboy
songs and country music around midwestern campfires when he was 14.
Now, almost four decades later, he performs those same old songs
and poetry, painting a true portrait of the West, beyond
Hollywood’s stereotypical images.
Through his holiday show, he says he attempts to revive the
spirit of campfires, dances and family celebrations that accompany
the holidays.
Murphey, a UCLA music alumnus and current Utah State University
adjunct communications professor, says he’s still a cowboy.
"I raise long-horn cattle. I also raise quarter horses and use
them often in the shows that I do," Murphey says. "It’s the closest
thing, I think, to the Jeffersonian vision of what America’s
supposed to be."
In western tradition, riding along with the cold, quiet winter
came a celebration of music and dance. Murphey recalls the familiar
setting.
"You have to picture a winter scene outside and a warm scene
inside with kerosene lanterns and candles and people are dancing,"
Murphey says. "Grandparents are dancing with their 4- and
5-year-old grandchildren, and mothers are dancing with their
sons."
Murphey says the Schoenberg concert, part of a 45-city tour,
will be a production that evokes the nostalgia of that kind of
Christmas gathering.
"It’s a cross between a one-man show, a dramatization and a
concert. There’s a campfire and there’s Christmas trees," Murphey
says. "We try to recreate the feeling of a cowboy remembering …
his life, the Christmases he’s had in the West."
But how does Murphey’s portrait compare to Hollywood’s portrayal
of the rural rancher?
Murphey says, apart from Robert Redford’s film "The Horse
Whisperer," most of the ways Hollywood portrays cowboys are
inaccurate.
"You get into some morality play scenario, and pretty soon you
get into very inaccurate descriptions," Murphey says. "You think
that every cowboy swaggers around with a six-gun on, and his whole
life is lived in order to have a conflict with somebody with a
gun."
"As a matter of fact, most cowboys didn’t carry guns, even in
the 19th century, and if they did, they probably would have shot
themselves in the foot."
Stephanie VanderWeo, a UCLA first-year doctoral student in
musicology, plans to write her dissertation on country music. Her
grandfather was a cowboy, and she agrees with Murphey that
Hollywood’s depiction of the cowboy is inaccurate.
"I think the image of the Hollywood cowboy, beginning with John
Wayne movies, was used as a romantic image to counter the hardships
of the Depression," VanderWeo says. "The Hollywood cowboy became
somebody who rescued people and fought evil; he was always saving
somebody."
VanderWeo also says Hollywood omits the daily farming routine
that accompanies cowboy life.
"My grandfather, who was a cowboy up in Eastern Oregon rounded
up cattle and moved them across the mountains, but he also farmed,"
she says.
"Another thing about the Hollywood cowboy is that they always
take the law into their own hands, and that just isn’t the
case."
On the "Cowboy Christmas Concert" tour, Murphey and his
six-piece band perform cowboy poetry and music, with instruments
ranging from extensive fiddle, banjo, hammered dulcimer and
harmonica to mandolin, acoustic bass, drums and keyboards.
And while Murphey’s concert does salute the religious meaning of
Christmas, he says it’s not a religious show that stuffs a certain
viewpoint of Christianity down people’s throats.
"I am a Quaker so I recognize the light in everybody, in every
religion. We also know that there are people who participate in the
Christmas season who are not Christians; people celebrate Hanukkah
at this time of year or they give gifts, but they are not involved
in any sense in the Christian Church," Murphey says.
He stresses that Friday’s concert is about the joy of the
holiday season.
"Religion, to me, shouldn’t be something that divides people.
It’s about the joy and peace, and that’s what we want to spread
through the show," Murphey says.
"It’s about the fun, it’s about the warmth, it’s about a
down-home feeling. It’s about the joy of the season and the fun
which, in my opinion, is why Christ came to the planet."
CONCERT: Tickets to see the show are $22, $11 (for children
under 16) and $9 (UCLA students with valid ID) For more
information, call (310) 825-2101.
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