For 30 years, acclaimed singer songwriter Michael Martin Murphey has been celebrating the Christmas season “Cowboy-style.” A pioneer of Americana music with a resume that includes hits that have topped the Pop, Country, Bluegrass and Western music charts, the genre busting Murphey has announced plans to continue celebrating with his multi-city Michael Martin Murphey’s Cowboy Christmas® tour for the 30th straight year. This year, Murphey makes a stop at the St. Francis Auditorium, in the New Mexico Museum of Art, on Saturday, December 3, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
Seems Murphey, a New Mexico favorite, never tires of spreading the Christmas cheer. “What I try to do is encourage people to think of the spirit of giving, charity and forgiving, which is the spirit of Christmas,” says Murphey. “It’s about delivering that beautiful message of Christmas to people.”
Michael Martin Murphey’s Cowboy Christmas® was inspired by an event that began in 1885 in Anson, Texas, when the local community of cowboys came together to celebrate the season with the very first Cowboy Christmas Ball. The festivities included dancing and merriment that has continued virtually every year since.
“The first time I came to the annual Cowboy Christmas Ball in Anson, I was floored that the community had worked so hard to keep it going,” says Murphey, himself a rancher and farmer. “I fell in love watching the older couples dance and the dances being passed on to the younger people. It re-connected me to the tradition. The Cowboy Christmas Ball is steeped in everything I hold dear of growing up in Texas at Christmas. All the dances were here — the waltzes, the mazurkas, the Paul Jones, the Virginia Reel. The women make their own costumes and clothes, and the men still wear string ties and frock coats. It’s a family reunion of friends.”
Cowboy Christmas® differs from other seasonal presentations in its focus of the “special relationship” of the Christmas story to rural communities, farmers, and ranchers. “God first sent an angel to the livestock people — shepherds in the fields. Whether you’re a believer or not, the story emphasizes that the news of the birth of the Savior was not given to royalty or politicians. The Lord did not alert the media or ministers.
“That underscores that Jesus came for all people, all races and all classes,” he continues. “That means that rural people should feel a significant part of the Christmas message because they were chosen to hear the story first. This is my favorite season of the year. We remember our fathers and mothers. We celebrate our children, and we treasure our friends and the many blessings given by our Lord. It really brings out the very best in all of us.”
Best known for such hits as Wildfire, Carolina In The Pines, Geronimo’s Cadillac, What’s Forever For, Long Line of Love, Cowboy Logic, and more, Murphey has had a long and storied career, which shows no signs of slowing down. In April, he was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the prestigious Western Heritage Awards in Oklahoma City, Okla. A month earlier he was inducted into the Texas Songwriter Hall of Fame.
Sponsored by Gardenia Jungle Entertainment, Red Zia Events, and the Santa Fe New Mexican, Michael Martin Murphey’s Cowboy Christmas tickets are now on sale. Prices are $75 for VIP, $65 for Premium, $55 for Standard, and $45 for Balcony. For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit the website.
