Customer Reviews

Cowboy Christmas

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This CD was given to my husband as a gift several years ago. As a sideline, he raises beef cattle although we live in a metropolitan area and he owns and operates a Construction Company. The person giving this CD to him thought it was perfect for him. However, after hearing it one time I "stole" it from him and play it in our home and car all through the Holiday Season. Although I love Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, The Beatles, etc., I have found this to be the best, most relaxing, most enjoyable Christmas Music I have ever heard! We have given it to friends as a gift who love it as much as we do. Last year the CD got stuck in our car and when they had to remove the entire radio/CD/Cassett Player, the CD was ruined. We were heartsick, but I had hopes this year of finding it on Amazon.Com, and I wasn't disappointed. Thanks so very much! This CD is a well kept secret - if it were played on the radio everyone would want a copy!

What I particularly appreciate about this album is that it is radically different from any Christmas album I've come across, yet it is an extremely entertaining album (albeit slow to get going) that might appeal to some people who wouldn't normally listen to country music in general or cowboy music in particular.

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.

My wife and I had the opportunity of seeing Michael Martin Murpheys Cowboy Christmas Ball show here in Colorado 4 years ago. It completly blew us away. If you have a chance to see it... please do yourself a favor and do it. Its simple, happy old-fashioned, heartfelt Christmas music performed by musicians who care. Anyway... we had to wait an entire year until the show came back to Fort Collins, so we could buy this disc for ourselves. (We couldn't find the disc in any stores at that time!) Since owning this for ourselves, I must have bought another dozen discs to pass out as gifts. You will be thankful for years and years that you bought it.

p.s. If his Cowboy Christmas Ball show comes to a city near you, have fun!

A treasure... yes there is a difference between country and western, and this is all classic western. We look foward to hearing these songs every year... they are captured in a easy sing a long not fatiguing way, love songs, dance along, you name it... full of imagery. A must have to round out any collection.

This is the single best Christmas CD I have ever gotten. I originally bought it becasue I wanted one song on it, but fell in love with all of the songs. It is a refreshing changed from people rehashing all of the old Christmas classics.

No exaggeration, this is my favorite Christmas album of all time (and I own about 100). The selection of songs is perfect--some traditional, some familiar, and some new. The instrumental is just outstanding, as you would expect out of one of Michael's albums. The grouping of numbers into different aspects of a cowboy Christmas is unique. And then, of course, there's Michael's vocals, which are unlike any other. While it's all great, my favorite number is a duet with Suzy Bogguss on "Two-Step 'Round the Christmas Tree". This album is one-of-a-kind and completely enjoyable. I highly recommend it.

I am a long time collector of Christmas music, everything from classical to cowboy. Cowboy Christmas is my hands down favorite of the 250 or so Christmas albums I own. I own two copies, one for home and one in the car. I highly recomend this album.

This is a great collection of old fashioned cowboy Christmas music

My family and I saw Michael Martin Murphy in concert at Christmas time in Fort Worth in 1998 and again in 1999. He tells the story of the songs on this albumn and what they mean to him. The Cowboy Christmas Ball is real and is held in Anson,Texas every year. Every time I play this albumn I swear I will make it to the ball some year. This albumn is a real treat and is a must have for anyone who loves the Old West.

This is not an album full of familiar Christmas carols and tunes remade in the "cowboy songs" style. Rather, Michael Martin Murphey introduces us to an blend of both original and (a few) familiar songs that together paint a delightful and entertaining portrait of "Christmas, Cowboy Style" Not just for Cowboys, you'll like this upbeat and unique Christmas album.