dual personalities

Tag: Michael Martin Murphey

September 30, 2021

“If it’s a horse, ride it, if it hurts, hide it/Dust yourself off and get back on again”*

by chuckofish

One of the highlights of our recent adventure in southeastern Colorado was attending the Michael Martin Murphey concert in the Koshare Kiva, which boasts the largest self-supporting log roof in the world.

President Dwight Eisenhower visited the Koshare Kiva back in the 1950s and acknowledged that the ceiling was truly amazing. It is a fascinating place, built by Boy Scouts interested in Indian lore. They raised the money to build the Kiva and also started collecting the art that is housed in the museum. Quite a testament to what young people can accomplish when they are inspired and supported in their efforts.

Anyway, it is a pretty cool place to attend a concert. I’m not sure how many people it holds, but it was full. We were in the third row, center and so had a clear view of Murphey.

The acoustics were excellent. We are not particular fans of MMM, but we have certainly been aware of his career through the years and daughter #1 and I remembered seeing him at the Grand Old Opry back in the late 1990s during his cowboy songs period. He was the honorary chairman of the Santa Fe Trail Bicentennial Symposium so we thought we should support the concert. I’m glad we did.

He is now 76 years old. A native Texan and descendant of Roger Williams (1603-1689), founder of the First Baptist Church in America, he is a student of history and a lover of all things western. It is in his blood he says, and I hear him. He has a good take on the pioneers, believing that they were not looking for money and power (as so many today believe) but a home and the freedom to live there. At the same time, he is a lifelong advocate for Native American rights. He talked at length during his concert about his various interests, and to be truthful, I could have done with less talking/lecturing. He rambled on for over 3 hours and how he stood there for that length of time, I do not know. (It was a long 3+ hours on my metal folding chair!) But he is an engaging old man now, who can still play like a virtuoso and his singing voice is strong and impressive.

So it was certainly worth staying up long after my bedtime to go to this concert, and I’ll admit that it’s a good idea to get out of one’s comfort zone every once in awhile.

It is supposed to rain all weekend, which is okay as I plan to stay home and get organized. And I’ll go to church–I haven’t been in two weeks while out of town!

Blessed Lord, who putteth down the mighty from their seat and exaltest those of low degree: Save us, we beseech thee, from pride and vainglory, from self-seeking and false ambition. Give us a humble and contrite spirit, that we may think less of ourselves, more of others, and most of all of thee, who art our mighty God and Saviour; to whom with thee and the Holy Spirit we ascribe all praise and glory, now and for evermore.

–Frank Colquhoun, evangelical priest and popular author in the Church of England

*Cowboy Logic by Michael Martin Murphey

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January 30, 2018

“One clover, and a bee, And revery”*

by chuckofish

Yesterday was the birthday of one of our favorite ancestors, John Wesley Prowers,

bent1881_jwprowers.jpgthe older brother of our great-great grandmother, Mary Prowers Hough. I toasted him and we watched Red River (1948) in his honor.

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A more appropriate movie would probably be The Rare Breed (1966) with James Stewart, which is a fictionalized account of the introduction of the Hereford breed in America, but I didn’t feel like it. Red River is a much better movie.

It is, indeed, a fine, fine movie. The first hour is really great. It wanders a bit after that–especially when John Wayne is off stage–and my mind did too. Watching this time, I was struck by several things.

1. Ricky Nelson In Rio Bravo a few years later is really channeling Montgomery Clift hard. He even rubs his nose the same way.

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2.Walter Brennan plays a character named Nadine Groot. I wonder if the character Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) is named after him. If not, he should be.

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3. Young Noah Beery reminded me a lot of Nathan Fillion.

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Anyway, John Prowers, a bonafide cattle king, died of cancer at age 46 in 1884. He was laid to rest in Las Animas Cemetery in Bent County, Colorado–not on the lone prairie, but in his family plot.54629765_132759232704.jpgProwers grave.jpgWilliam Bent is buried there as well.455abc96-fdf9-4846-b5bf-a4fbd9ed1111_d.JPGMaybe I will make it to Las Animas some day. It is kind of a godforsaken place, but that is not in itself unappealing.

“O bury me not on the lone prairie.”
These words came low and mournfully
From the pallid lips of the youth who lay
On his dying bed at the close of day

He had wasted and pined ’til o’er his brow
Death’s shades were slowly gathering now
He thought of home and loved ones nigh
As the cowboys gathered to see him die

“O bury me not on the lone prairie
Where coyotes howl and the wind blows free
In a narrow grave just six by three—
O bury me not on the lone prairie”

“It matters not, I’ve been told
Where the body lies when the heart grows cold
Yet grant, o grant, this wish to me
O bury me not on the lone prairie.”

“I’ve always wished to be laid when I died
In a little churchyard on the green hillside
By my father’s grave, there let me be
O bury me not on the lone prairie.”

“I wish to lie where a mother’s prayer
And a sister’s tear will mingle there
Where friends can come and weep o’er me
O bury me not on the lone prairie.”

I always liked this song, don’t you? The theme is played throughout Red River and a lot of other great westerns too. Think Stagecoach (1939).

*Emily Dickinson

“To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.”

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