A few days ago, I posted this on Facebook. Putting it here for a little longer shelf life (Inshallah).
One week ago/Last weekend (16 July) we traveled up to Red River (NM) and were part of dinner concert by Michael Martin Murphey (MMM); we were joined this time by Meme’s sister Pat (Medici) who had journeyed up from El Paso for a visit. I'm glad Meme & Pat were able to get me out of my safe zone (aka "my chair").
Meme & I had attended a MMM BBQ & concert at this outdoor venue in 2017 and loved it. I recall when I posted about it back then that some responses pointed out his conservative views, instead of his music. I usually don’t like to evaluate art by an artist’s politics, as it can be a very slippery slope into extremism (How many times do we need to learn that lesson, comrade?).
MMM honored first responders & firefighters. It was mentioned he’d been recognized by my alma mater, The U.S. Dept. of the Interior, for his “Wildfire” support efforts (which of course is the name of his most famous commercial hit).
Let me tell you about where he is now with his music and some of his statements: MMM started the show by welcoming everyone to the ranch and pointed out that it was an old mining area and later a vacation ranch, but for 9,000 years the homeland of ancestral Puebloan people now found in the southwest and locally at Taos Pueblo. He noted that the Apache also called these mountains (we were over 9,400’ elevation) home. He then gave the backstory for, and sang, “Geronimo’s Cadillac” (the title song of his 1st album).
Next up, was the story of how “Backslider’s Wine” came about (his mother worrying about her son’s move to music central in CA: worried he’d “become a communist” – I could relate to that latter part- my mom was certain that if I just stayed home and go to USC I’d amass enough debt that I’d have to turn out OK. I didn’t, but I did).
MMM paid tribute to various country and western traditions (like cowboy songs from the trail and how the original cowboys were a very diverse group: 25% black, 50% brown and the other 25% “not looking like Clint Eastwood.”). He told us about Georgia O’Keefe’s accomplishments & legacy: plus her museum in Santa Fe having free admission the next day. Michael also again saluted couples celebrating anniversaries with the playing of “What’s Forever For”. One of his fellow musicians was his son Ryan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Murphey ), who teaches stringed instruments at an academy in Nashville.
To close he came back to the thoughts that as great as we are as a nation, we’ll never attain our greatest potential until we make the original Native American peoples an equal and whole part of this experiment. I say Amen & Ah-Hoo to that! He ended leading us in a sing and clap-along of “Carolina in the Pines.” THANK YOU for the fun times Señor…
ALL photos are courtesy of Pat Medici.
