Michael Martin Murphey is aiming to do now what Buffalo Bill Cody did a century before -- invigorate a country's interest in itself.
"I think he'd be very pleased to see what he started," said Murphey, the self-proclaimed cowboy singer who started WestFest in Colorado 12 years ago. Since then, 20 festivals have been held across the country to celebrate the heritage of the West with a combination of music, history, art and entertainment.
"The Western way of life . . . still stands out as distinctly different, and if you put it all in one place it's pretty cool," Murphey said. "You can get a lot of fun out of it."
This year, the festival makes its first appearance Friday through Oct. 11 at Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore. It's scheduled to return through 2000 on the grounds that also host the annual Renaissance Pleasure Faire.
The idea of WestFest is to get people "to plug back into your own roots and your own history. San Bernardino County has a tremendously interesting Western history," said Murphey, who lived in Wrightwood in the late '60s. Most people don't realize San Bernardino was Wyatt Earp's first Western home, or that the area was the stopping point for many Mormon pioneers, he pointed out. "You've got great ghost towns, like Calico, and the Mojave Desert is rich with a lot of history," he said. "We can be an adjunct to waking people up to a lot of that."
Murphey and several festival participants try to visit area schools prior to each WestFest. "The kids get so excited," he said. "To tell a black kid that 25 percent of all the cowboys in the West were black was thrilling." So is telling Hispanic children that their culture spawned the chaps, hats and some of the techniques of the cowboy. "They just don't have any connection to roots and culture, and that's too bad." This type of exposure "restores a sense of pride," he said.
It was Christopher Columbus who brought the first longhorns and horses to America. "Cowboys-and-Indian stuff, as we know it now, kind of began there," Murphey said.
"Back in 1976, when we passed the 200 mark -- the bicentennial -- Americans have started being a lot more conscious of their roots in the past." If you look at America's earliest years, "our nation pretty much looks like a pale imitation of England," he said. "Until you get to the tales of west of the Mississippi . . . at that point it becomes distinctly American."
It was Cody who made the culture into show business when he put together a Fourth of July celebration in Nebraska. "Virtually every man, woman and child in a 500-mile radius came to the show," Murphey said. Thus the traveling Wild West show was born; and out of that came rodeos. "The culture grew as a result of what he had started." In the days before television and slick magazines, the culture was mythical and exotic. "To actually see it, for Sitting Bull to actually come to your town . . . we can't understand," Murphey said.
The WestFests share some basic elements with the old Wild West shows, but there are also new things that Murphey is certain Cody would have added, such as the historical re-enactment camps and artisans.
Top-rank performers -- including Chris LeDoux, Lyle Lovett, Suzy Bogguss, Riders in the Sky, John Michael Montgomery and Junior Brown -- "they're the honey that draws the flies," Murphy said. He reconsidered his metaphor, switching it to bees. "They can sort of fly from flower to flower once they get there," he said.
"It's really had to draw people in when you say, `Hey, people, we're putting a teepee up. Come on over,' " Murphey said with a chuckle.
While music may be the main draw, it's only a fraction of the event. "It's possible to see WestFest and never see a single song" he said. You're welcome to take in just one element of WestFest but, Murphey said, "I think you'd miss a lot if you did."
The Native American Village will feature dancers and storytellers; beadwork, fine jewelry, baskets and other arts and crafts. The Mountain Man Camp will be populated by a variety of characters telling tales and demonstrating rustic techniques -- such as the process to braintan leather. The Cowboy Camp will host equestrian events. There will also be a rodeo, a special children's area and a collection of fine-arts vendors (organized by Murphey's bassist, Gary Roller, himself a noted sculptor and painter). "You can't do it all in one day and you can't do it all in three days," Murphey said. "There's no way you can see it all."
The music was originally scheduled for the Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion, but it's "too plastic, too cold, too formal up there," said Murphey, who will perform each day. All the shows have been moved to the park to be closer to the other activities. "We always look for a place that's got an aspect that could kind of give us a showcase for this kind of stuff," he said. The Glen Helen setup is ideal. "It looks good if you put a teepee up there," Murphey said. "It's probably even more perfect for WestFest than it is for the Renaissance Faire."
And, as at the fair, everyone is welcome. "You don't have to have a pair of cowboy boots and dress like us to come out to the festival . . . It's not a costume party -- it's a cultural exhibition," he said.
Not to sound corny, but he wants "to turn people on to what it means to be an American." After all, the nation's two unique, distinct icons are the jazz musician and the cowboy.
"WestFest is more of a political statement . . . maybe I should say social statement," Murphey mused. "It's connected to the life and social fabric and the roots, the roots of the county." Murphey's own roots go back to Dallas, where he grew up reading cowboy stories -- by 16 he was the singing cowboy and wrangler at a Lewisville, Texas, ranch. After attending North Texas State University he moved to California to study poetry and writing at UCLA and quickly became a popular figure in Los Angeles folk clubs. His successes have come on both pop and country charts, but not because Murphey has moved between genres. "I've continued to do the same music. It's just been re-labeled as I went along," Murphey said. "(Music) is so fragmented now and so segmented -- I'm sorry, that doesn't work for my life."
In the mid-'60s, Murphey performed as one of the four Trinity River Boys -- another was Michael Nesmith. In 1967 Murphey formed the short-lived Lewis and Clark Expedition. In the meantime, Nesmith had joined The Monkees, and the TV band had a hit with Murphey's "What Am I Doin' Hangin' 'Round?" Murphey flourished as a writer -- in 1972 Kenny Rogers recorded an entire album of his songs, "The Ballad of Calico," a concept album about the high-desert ghost town.
He moved back to Texas and began his career as a solo performer. In 1975 he had a pop-chart smash with a song about a ghost horse, "Wildfire."
It was his role in the movie "Hard Country" that spurred Murphey to begin using his middle name in order to avoid confusion with another actor.
The veteran singer was voted Best New Male Vocalist by the American Country Music Association in 1983, and a string of country hits followed. He's also won the Western Heritage Award four times from the Cowboy Hall of Fame, and last year he received the Will Rogers Cowboy Philosopher Award.
"All I can say is, look at the album covers and listen to the songs" said Murphey, 60, who lives on a ranch in Taos, New Mexico. "I don't look any different than I look now. I have always presented myself as a cowboy poet of the West."
In 1990 he released his first "Cowboy Songs" album, which inspired his record label to create a new division, Warner Western. Murphey's latest, "Cowboy Songs Four," is the first release on his own label -- WestFest.
"Everything I do is sort of tied together," he said with a chuckle, from the record label to the festivals to the trail rides he leads. "I do that just to keep myself in the saddle." He's about done with the Colorado Trail, and the Devore WestFest will be preceded by a three-day ride on the far side of the San Gabriel Mountains. "One of my goals in life is to ride the whole Pacific Crest Trail," Murphey said -- all 1,500 miles of it.
"I'm a cowboy singer. Part of what I get paid to do is sing, and part of what I get paid to do is be a cowboy."
WestFest: To hear a sample of Michael Martin Murphey, call NewsLink: Riverside-Moreno Valley, (909) 222-7000; Hemet-San Jacinto, (909) 765-2833; Temecula-Murrieta, (909) 693-3338. Category 8160. Toll charges may apply outside local calling areas.
Published 10/2/1998