Michael Martin Murphey's Cowboy Christmas

Michael Martin Murphey brings Cowboy Christmas to ACL Live at The Moody Theater on Friday, November 27, at 8 PM. It's his trademarked touring show, a musical concept celebrating Western cowboy tradition that he's been taking on the road for decades. Each holiday season it reaches around 40 cities and has yielded three albums and a DVD.

Murphey is known as the 'singing cowboy poet' and is the best-selling singer-songwriter of American Cowboy Music, and he's one of the most respected figures in Pop and Country-Western. He's also a lifelong resident of Texas. His debut album, Geronimo's Cadillac, came out in 1972 through A&M and was produced by Bob Johnston, who discovered him at the Rubaiyat coffee house in Dallas. The title track became a Top 40 protest song and was played during the 1974 occupation of Wounded Knee, which sealed his lifelong association with the Lakota Nation.

His connection to the West goes beyond the music. In 1987 he founded Westfest, a Western cultural festival in Colorado, and launched Cowboy Christmas that same year. He also revived the Texas Cowboys' Christmas Ball in Anson, Texas, after recording Larry Chittenden's 1880s song of the same name in 1985, and he plays the original location every year. The Austin show is part of that same holiday tradition.

It's a Friday night in late November, so it fits right into the start of the season. The show is at ACL Live at The Moody Theater on November 27, starting at 8 PM.