About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

Geronimo's Cadillac is the evidence that once upon a time, long before he was appointed the patron saint and musical sage of the Southwestern cowboy nation, Michael Martin Murphey was just Texas singer/songwriter Michael Murphey. After a period in California in the '60s, he returned to Austin, became part of the magical age of Texas songwriters, and signed to A&M. The two albums he cut for the label are undisputed classics of the genre; Murphey's sentimental overblown later music couldn't have been further removed from their enigmatic mystery. Geronimo's Cadillac and Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir were produced by Bob Johnston -- the guy who worked with Bob Dylan on Nashville Skyline and John Wesley Harding -- in Nashville (but they don't sound like it). They capture perfectly a kind of restless, irreverent, and optimistic aesthetic that encompassed country, pop, rock, and true Americana from Stephen Foster to Woody Guthrie. The cast includes Gary P. Nunn, Robert Livingstone, Owen Castleman, Kenny Buttrey, poet Charles John Quarto, and Leonard Arnold. The album kicks off with the title track, a romantic country-rock gospel-esque anthem -- which has been covered by many others but never equaled -- blending Murphey's trademark fascination with Western history, social commentary, and a rich sense of humor. "Natchez Trace," with Arnold's dirty Dobro and slide work pacing along with the loose acoustic mix, features Murphey's slightly raspy down-home funky tenor bringing the long lonesome wanderlust of the best in Texas music to bear on the tune. "Calico Silver" is a ballad that hints at what was to come in his later career. But Johnston keeps it raw even in the buildup with a string section, and the arid roughness in Murphey's vocal keeps it real: bittersweet, moving, and entirely unsentimental. The barrelhouse "Harbor for My Soul" reworks gospel and retrofits it to raucous country-rock. And the harrowing drama in "Crack Up in Los Cruces" is accented and underscored by the funky folky rock that keeps acoustic and electric guitars in perfect balance. Another Murphey Texas country classic, "Backslider's Wine," comes near the end of the disc, and it's sung plaintively, with conviction from the wise and knowing eye of one who feels as if it were written for Willie Nelson. Lesser-known tunes, such as the poetic, textured acoustic pop of "Rainbow Man," the elegiac "Boy from the Country," the rambling steel guitar rag "What Am I Doin' Hangin' Around?," and the slim slow storefront church slide of Ray Lewis' "The Lights of the City," make this a seamless, nearly perfect record. The CD contains gorgeously remastered sound and five bonus tracks recorded live at an Austin, Texas, watering hole in 1970, as well as an exclusive interview for this release. The reputation this record and its companion enjoy cannot be overstated. Given his subsequent work, one has to wonder if the artist who made these records even understands what made them so brilliant, or even exists underneath his current mythological incarnation. Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

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