Singer Michael Martin Murphey will be inducted into the Traditional
Country Music Hall during the 37th Annual National Old Time Country
Bluegrass and Folk Music Festival, (Aug. 27 – Sept. 2) at the Plymouth
County Fairgrounds in Le Mars, IA. (www.ntcma.net)
induction is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. Other artists to
be inducted during the week-long festival will be Lynn Anderson, Ed
Bruce, Charlie McCoy, Terry Smith, John Rex Reeves and Ted Vigil.
“This is quite an honor,” said Murphey. “I grew up listening and
learning what we now call traditional country music. It was great then
and it’s great now. I’m thrilled to be part of this.”
For the past four decades, Michael Martin Murphey has left an indelible
mark on the American Music Landscape with such huge hits as “Wildfire,”
“Carolina In The Pines,” “Geronimo’s Cadillac,” “What’s Forever For,”
“Long Line of Love,” “Cherokee Fiddle,” “What Am I Doin’ Hangin’ Round”
and Cowboy Logic, among others.
The number one selling artist of American Cowboy Music, Murphey has
been inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame, Western Music
Association Hall of Fame, Nebraska Country Music Hall of Fame and the
Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame.
Murphey’s continuing exploration of the similarities between Cowboy
songs and Bluegrass music earned him a Grammy-nomination in 2009 with
his Buckaroo Blue Grass. His most recent album in the buckaroo series is
Tall Grass and Cool Water.
The festival features 10 stages and continues for seven days with more
than 650 performers. “It’s a constant parade of the best old-time
traditional class country, folk and bluegrass music you’re going to find
anywhere else on planet earth,” said Festival Organizer Bob Everhart.
“What we do consistently try to do is to keep it ‘country.’ By that we
mean the old styles, the old traditions, the old culture, the ‘rural’
connotation, whatever got us to this point in time.”