Michael Martin Murphey - Cowboy Christmas

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Music reviews of Cowboy Christmas

Music Review: With guests Suzy Bogguss and Riders in the sky
Rating: 5 Stars

The inspiration for this album was a particularly severe blizzard that hit New Mexico in 1990. Michael's family was snowed in. Power and water supplies were cut. So it was, in many ways, an old-fashioned Christmas more like those of the nineteenth century. Michael wanted to recapture some of that spirit in his music. The album is programmed so the first nine tracks are about Christmas on the range, while the remaining ten tracks are about Christmas at the dance.

Christmas on the range begins with three spoken poems, two of them against a background of carols. In each case, Michael sings a few lines of the carol before Waddie Mitchell narrates the poem. Starting this way, the album seems slow to get going but, with the poems out of the way, the music takes over. Next comes Christmas on the line, a nice ballad. Then the tempo picks up as we get the first of several appearances by Suzy Bogguss on the medley of Sleigh ride and Jingle bells. The Christmas trail, a cover of Merry Texas Christmas you all (Ernest Tubb), a cover of Riding home on Christmas eve (Riders in the sky, featuring the group) and Corn water and wood (co-written by the brilliant songwriter, Wendy Waldman) complete the first part of the album.

Christmas at the dance is the most exciting part of the album, with several brilliant medleys. Christmas cowboy style and Pearls in the snow are great original songs, while there is a wonderful cover of Log cabin home in the sky (Incredible string band). Even among such classics, there are two songs that stand out - Cowboy Christmas ball and Two-step round the Christmas tree.

Cowboy Christmas ball is a song that Michael originally recorded for a various artists Christmas collection, A Christmas tradition, in the eighties. He re-recorded it for this album but it is even more exciting now, with help from Riders in the sky and Suzy Bogguss. Two-step round the Christmas tree is a song that Suzy co-wrote with her husband, Doug Crider. This version is a duet between Suzy and Michael, although Suzy has also recorded two solo versions of the song (first for Capitol and more recently for her own Christmas album). The dance ends with a brief Goodnight ladies followed by a poem narrated to the tune of auld lang syne.

This is one of the finest Christmas albums ever recorded in any genre of music. If this doesn't make you get up and dance at Christmas. Nothing will. If you don't want the poetry, start at track four - there's more than enough music to keep everybody entertained.

Description of Cowboy Christmas

Classical CDs

• Music > Styles
• Country
• Folk
• Miscellaneous
• Pop