No contemporary entertainer better exemplifies the heart and soul of the American West—the real West—than cowboy singer Michael Martin Murphey. In concert halls and arenas throughout the United States, the top-selling western recording artist venerates the heritage of his Texas upbringing by performing songs, both classic and of his own composition, to appreciative audiences yearning for elements that best define our American culture; independence, adventure and rugged individualism as well as cowboys, Indians, horses and the tradition of American "roots" music.

Having been described as a modern-day version of Buffalo Bill Cody, a merit he wears well, Murphey has revived the popular tradition of the Wild West show as host and star performer of his Horseback Concert Spectacular featuring the Original Wild West Revue. Inspired by Buffalo Bill's enormously successful 30-year show business career—Cody was the world’s first "superstar"—and the fact that a number of early singing cowboys and movie stars toured with Wild West shows and circuses, Murphey's presentations are as thrilling as they are nostalgic.

While the concert includes Murphey's earlier hits such as "Wildfire" and "Geronimo's Cadillac," the focus is overwhelmingly western and features selections, several performed on horseback, from the singer's series of "Cowboy Songs" albums for which he is currently best-known.

Murphey realizes, as did Buffalo Bill, that the spotlight shines brightest when it's shared with others and sharing that spotlight are nationally- renowned precision rodeo drill teams comprised of young women demonstrating an amazing array of fast-paced maneuvers performed on horseback as Murphey provides vocal accompaniment.

©Kat Brannaman Photo

Perhaps the most unique feature of the patriotic 2-hour presentation is the Original Wild West Revue notably because, not since the 1940s, has a major entertainer toured with such an aggregation of mounted western performers.

Col. William F. Cody, famous on both sides of the Atlantic as Buffalo Bill, realized that the American West was populated with dramatic and colorful characters and it was his vision to present a pageant that would showcase our vanishing frontier. First presented in Omaha in 1883, Wild West audiences thrilled to such scenes as an ambush on the Deadwood Stagecoach, the marksmanship of Annie Oakley and, above all, the dynamic presence of Buffalo Bill Himself.

Brian Downes, a member of the Showmen's League of America, the Wild West Arts Club and the John Wayne Centennial Committee, has assembled a cast of top-notch re-enactors and skilled professionals who, within Murphey's show, pay faithful homage to Cody's horseback extravaganzas of 100 years ago.

Presented with an unerring eye towards historical accuracy, the thundering action features mounted cowboys and cowgirls, resplendent cavalrymen, Annie Oakley and, from the Congress of Rough Riders of the World, the exciting horsemanship of Cossack Ivan the Black…and, of course, the Prince of the Plains, Buffalo Bill! Also showcased are nationally famous trick riders, lariat artists, a stampeding stagecoach and loads of gallop and gunfire, all accompanied by a loud and lively Wild West brass band performing vintage tunes well-known to audiences of Buffalo Bill's day.

The only entertainment combination of its kind, the spectacle provides as rollicking an Old West adventure as modern-day audiences will ever encounter.

ORIGINAL MUSIC FROM BUFFALO BILL'S WILD WEST
       PERFORMED BY AMERICUS BRASS BAND