Forget Santa and reindeers, Cowboy Christmas is riding into town. On Monday, Nov. 30, legendary country singer and songwriter Michael Martin Murphey is bringing what he calls the “only legitimate American Christmas” concert to eTown Hall.
Murphey says his Christmas doesn’t feature Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but rather cowboy poetry and traditional Christmas carols as recorded on his Cowboy Christmas albums.
“America is the most Christmas-loving country, and the majority of Christmas songs were actually written by Americans,” Murphey says. “When you look at interpretations of Christmas in the U.S., though, the event has been turned into a very Victorian English sort of thing.”
For more than 20 years, Murphey has taken his Americana tradition from city to city to celebrate Christmas in true cowboy style. The inspiration for Murphey’s Cowboy Christmas dates back to 1885, when the first Cowboys’ Christmas Ball was held in Anson, Texas.
“I like that the Cowboys’ Christmas Ball was really about the attitude at the time, people just getting together to dance and celebrate,” Murphey says. “There was even a poem written about the first one. A journalist named Larry Chittenden was inspired by what he saw and wrote the famous ‘The Cowboy’s Christmas Ball,’ which ended up in the London Times.”
The official Cowboys’ Christmas Ball has continued annually in Anson for the past two centuries, and Murphey says that attending it in person really inspired him to take his event and his songwriting to the next level.
“I first had the opportunity to perform at the Cowboys’ Christmas Ball in the early ’90s,” Murphey says. “I was so fired up after that first ball that I was inspired to record the first Cowboy Christmas album, and I’ve performed every year since.”
As a former Grammy nominee and Rolling Stone’s Best New Songwriter of the Year back in 1972, Murphey prides himself on the Western music he creates for Cowboy Christmas and beyond. His albums appear in the Crossroads Music Archive at Texas Tech University, a collection he himself has been working tirelessly to create.
“It’s taken me quite a while, but in the last four years I was able to create what is now the largest archive of West Texas music in the world,” Murphey says.
Now in its 21st year, Cowboy Christmas alternates between a dance and a concert and is always a familyfriendly and alcohol-free event. When it comes down to it, Murphey says, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ, and his Cowboy Christmas is produced in a pastoral manner to convey the message.
“We’re not cramming religion down people’s throats, and we don’t get involved with politics, either,” Murphey says. “Politics is just issues, and Cowboy Christmas is a celebration whether you believe that the story of Jesus is just folklore or the truth as written in the Bible.”
Murphey’s events have always incorporated frontier imagery, though it was only recently that he added pictures on screens to accompany the music. Although the eTown Hall event is considered a concert rather than a ball, Murphey says the dancing is an important component of his show.
“Cowboy Christmas gives kids a place to dance, and that’s not something they get to do outside of nightclubs anymore, really,” Murphey says. “The audience always has fun and that’s what’s important.”
Murphey says his message and music selection is what makes his Cowboy Christmas stand out from other holiday events, and he says he enjoys educating his audiences each year.
“People don’t know that Americans have written more Christmas carols than any other country,” Murphey says. “The song ‘We Three Kings’ was written by a clergyman from Boston and was about bringing peace to the world. This is why I consider my Cowboy Christmas to be the only legitimately true American Christmas, because this is what we’re singing and talking about.”
Murphey’s Cowboy Christmas is kicking off its two-month tour in Colorado, with first stops in Colorado Springs and Grand Junction. Although Murphey calls Texas home, he still feels particularly connected to Colorado after living on a ranch in Beulah for a number of years.
Despite performing the same Christmas carols and cowboy poetry for more than two decades, Murphey says he has no intention of stopping Cowboy Christmas anytime soon and still enjoys seeing the audience come to life each November and December.
“Producing Cowboy Christmas is the most rewarding thing in the entire world for me,” Murphey says. “Ever since I started, it’s been a great ride for me and everyone else involved.”
ON THE BILL: Michael Murphey´s Cowboy Christmas, 7 p.m., onday, Nov. 30, eTown Hall, 135 Spruce St., Boulder, 303-443-8696.
