Friendship helps boost Frontier Days
By BARBARA WALLACE HUGHES, Messenger managing editorFact Box
Fast Facts
Michael Martin Murphey hits include "Wildfire," "Cowboy Logic," "Carolina in the Pines" and "What's Forever For."
The title song of his album "Geronimo's Cadillac" in 1972 was recorded by Hoyt Axton and taken up as an anthem by Native American civil rights activists.
Murphey appeared in the 1981 film, "Take This Job and Shove It."
Songs he wrote have been recorded by Flatt and Scruggs, Kenny Rogers and Bobbie Gentry.
A 1993 album features "Big Iron," a duet using a voice track recorded in 1960 by the late Marty Robbins.
Who you know makes a difference.
A friend of Jon Weber's is already making a difference for Frontier Days because his friend is Western music recording artist Michael Martin Murphey - whose presence is spurring button sales for the weekend celebration.
The friendship, which Weber refers to as "the Walter Mitty part of my life," is at least a decade old and grew out of a shared love of old-time Western music.
Weber, now a registered representative with Kraayenbrink Financial and Associates, met Murphey through a previous employer. The friendship was sparked when Weber found a book in Humboldt by musicologist and folklorist John Lomax "about old cowboy stuff," the kind of music Murphey was performing. Weber e-mailed Murphey about the book and received a three-page reply.
"I read it and read it and read it," said Weber, who was a longtime fan of "the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans style of music."
Murphey, too, had an appreciation for cowboy music. In 1990, he recorded the album "Cowboy Songs" that included "The Yellow Rose of Texas" and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," and has recorded two other albums of Western songs since then.
"But he's moving back into bluegrass," Weber said.
In fact, Murphey's newest CD, "Buckaroo Blue Grass," is climbing the charts and features acoustic versions of his songs that have been recorded by bluegrass bands.
Since befriending Murphey, Weber has also met the artist's family- including his wife, children and mother - and has been invited to family gatherings.
Weber hadn't seen his friend for about eight or nine months, he said. Then he got a call from Murphey, who was in Fairmont, Minn., and planning to head down Interstate 35 to the singer/songwriter's native Texas. It was Murphey, Weber said, who brought up Frontier Days.
The recording star with six gold albums asked whether Frontier Days was still held in June. Weber said he told his friend it was, but there had been an article in The Messenger saying the festival was "up against the wall" and seriously in need of a financial boost.
"Get me the numbers of some key people, and I'll have my management make some contacts," Murphey told Weber.
As a result, Murphey will present his Lone Cowboy Campfire Concert at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Fort Museum. A $5 Frontier Days button provides admission to the concert. Murphey will also ride in a horse-drawn wagon down Central Avenue for the Frontier Days parade at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Frontier Days organizer Terry Cook said button sales have been brisk since the announcement that Murphey would be playing.
Murphey, Weber said, has a fondness for Webster County people, and particularly for Dayton folks after playing fundraisers for the Iowa Quarter Horse Association to help support the Brushy Creek Recreation Area a few years ago.
"The people of Dayton really did pull together and get the job done," Weber said. "There's a cowboy spirit here and an attitude ... with the Dayton people and Frontier Days."
Contact Barbara Wallace Hughes at (515) 573-2141 or bwh@messengernews.net
