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Bill Miller performs at 12:40 p.m. Sunday at Copper Country.
Schedule of Events*:
TODAY:
5-9 p.m., CB Grille lobster boil. Call (970) 968-3113 for reservations.
6-8 p.m., Boot Scoot Street Party, followed by a free screening of “Amazing Grace” (rated PG) at dusk.
SATURDAY
6-8:30 a.m. Copper Mountain Fire Dept Pancake Breakfast at Jack's Slopeside Grill
Noon: SML: Selby Mills and LeMaire — These three guys produce creative harmonies, funky instrumentation and cool tunes, from rock and pop to country and blues. www.myspace.com/selbymillslemaire
1:05 p.m. Amanda Shaw — New Orleans-based singer, songwriter, fiddler and actress Amanda Shaw is part of a new breed of young, roots-based musicians who have embraced both traditional and pop sounds. www.amandashaw.com
2:10 p.m. Buckwheat Zydeco — With massive instrumental and vocal talents and boundless energy, Buckwheat is one of the most popular zydeco artists in the world. www.buckwheatzydeco.com
3:20 p.m. Shelby Lynne — Shelby Lynne impressed critics, country fans and pop listeners with her 2000 “I Am Shelby Lynne” album. www.shelbylynne.com
4:40 p.m. Little Feat — By the mid-1970s, Little Feat garnered a reputation as one of the finest purveyors of the era's popular Southern-fried boogie. www.littlefeat.net
6 p.m. Boot Scoot Street party with Oakhurst (at West Lake Stage) — Take a string band and swap out the mandolin player for a groovy drummer, and you're well on your way to understanding the sound of Oakhurst, with its blend of traditional bluegrass and a rockin' danceable rhythm. www.myspace.com/oakhurst
SUNDAY:
Noon: Down the Line — Chicago's Down the Line continues to demonstrate that you don't need electricity to generate real power. Its music delivers mighty hooks and harmonies within smart song craft and shining vocals. www.downthelineband.com
12:40 p.m. Bill Miller — Bill Miller is a Grammy award-winning recording artist, a performer, songwriter, activist, painter and world-class accomplished flute player. www.billmiller.net
1:35 p.m. The John Cowan Band — Bluegrass, newgrass, gospelgrass, rock ‘n'rollgrass — true innovators like John Cowan break boundaries and personify creativity.
2:30 p.m. The Richie Furay Band — Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Richie Furay has been a pioneering force in rock and country music, both solo and as a founding member of Buffalo Springfield, Poco and SHF. www.richiefuray.com
3:35 p.m. Michael Martin Murphey with Pat Flynn — Pat Flynn is a renowned songwriter, artist, session player and producer. www.patflynnmusic.com. Michael Martin Murphey is known for his cowboy stories and songs — and more. www.michaelmartinmurpheymusic.com
4:55 p.m. America — America's “You Can Do Magic” rose to the pop charts in 1982, and since then the band has contributed to soundtracks. En.Wikipedia.org/wiki/America_(band)
ONGOING:
Art festival, Copper Kids' Corral and mechanical bull rides
5-9 p.m., CB Grille lobster boil. Call (970) 968-3113 for reservations.
6-8 p.m., Boot Scoot Street Party, followed by a free screening of “Amazing Grace” (rated PG) at dusk.
SATURDAY
6-8:30 a.m. Copper Mountain Fire Dept Pancake Breakfast at Jack's Slopeside Grill
Noon: SML: Selby Mills and LeMaire — These three guys produce creative harmonies, funky instrumentation and cool tunes, from rock and pop to country and blues. www.myspace.com/selbymillslemaire
1:05 p.m. Amanda Shaw — New Orleans-based singer, songwriter, fiddler and actress Amanda Shaw is part of a new breed of young, roots-based musicians who have embraced both traditional and pop sounds. www.amandashaw.com
2:10 p.m. Buckwheat Zydeco — With massive instrumental and vocal talents and boundless energy, Buckwheat is one of the most popular zydeco artists in the world. www.buckwheatzydeco.com
3:20 p.m. Shelby Lynne — Shelby Lynne impressed critics, country fans and pop listeners with her 2000 “I Am Shelby Lynne” album. www.shelbylynne.com
4:40 p.m. Little Feat — By the mid-1970s, Little Feat garnered a reputation as one of the finest purveyors of the era's popular Southern-fried boogie. www.littlefeat.net
6 p.m. Boot Scoot Street party with Oakhurst (at West Lake Stage) — Take a string band and swap out the mandolin player for a groovy drummer, and you're well on your way to understanding the sound of Oakhurst, with its blend of traditional bluegrass and a rockin' danceable rhythm. www.myspace.com/oakhurst
SUNDAY:
Noon: Down the Line — Chicago's Down the Line continues to demonstrate that you don't need electricity to generate real power. Its music delivers mighty hooks and harmonies within smart song craft and shining vocals. www.downthelineband.com
12:40 p.m. Bill Miller — Bill Miller is a Grammy award-winning recording artist, a performer, songwriter, activist, painter and world-class accomplished flute player. www.billmiller.net
1:35 p.m. The John Cowan Band — Bluegrass, newgrass, gospelgrass, rock ‘n'rollgrass — true innovators like John Cowan break boundaries and personify creativity.
2:30 p.m. The Richie Furay Band — Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Richie Furay has been a pioneering force in rock and country music, both solo and as a founding member of Buffalo Springfield, Poco and SHF. www.richiefuray.com
3:35 p.m. Michael Martin Murphey with Pat Flynn — Pat Flynn is a renowned songwriter, artist, session player and producer. www.patflynnmusic.com. Michael Martin Murphey is known for his cowboy stories and songs — and more. www.michaelmartinmurpheymusic.com
4:55 p.m. America — America's “You Can Do Magic” rose to the pop charts in 1982, and since then the band has contributed to soundtracks. En.Wikipedia.org/wiki/America_(band)
ONGOING:
Art festival, Copper Kids' Corral and mechanical bull rides
The beginning of an era
Michael Martin Murphey is an innovator, a scholar, a songwriter, a musician, a mentor — and an all-around nice guy.Murphey started Westfest — a huge, almost three-ring circus full of cowboy stories, Indian villages, art, music and more, based on Buffalo Bill's Wild West show — at Copper Mountain in 1987 and performed for 13 years. This weekend, he returns to the place his grand vision began.
Westfest grew out of an unsuccessful country fair Copper hosted, Murphey said. The event was a rich celebration of Western culture, which spread to other locations due to its success. A typical day might begin with Bill Miller leading people up the mountain and playing flute and telling Native America stories. Throughout the day, guests were free to roam from teepee villages to mountain-man villages and from art shows to live music. It was one of the largest country music festivals in the nation, Murphey said.
But the festival took up a huge area, and when Intrawest refurbished Copper's village, it didn't leave much room for a bunch of teepees and camps, Murphey said, so he took his show elsewhere. Then, after 20 years, he figured he'd give it a rest, since it took so much time away from his own music.
Murphey — and the nation — have gone five long years without a Westfest, and he's toying with the idea of revamping it. But in the meantime, this weekend's Copper Country is acting as a bit of a reunion for many performers.
“It's fun to come back to the area,” he said. “There are lots of memories.”
One old friend he'll see is Miller, a two-time Grammy winner in 2005 and 2006. Murphey helped Miller's career take off when he asked him to tour with him as an opener.
“He was one of the first professionals to encourage me and not discourage or bully me,” Miller said. “He allowed me to be myself and opened up my first record deal with Warner Brothers.”
From abuse to redemption
Miller's story is an interesting one, as he went from growing up on a reservation in Wisconsin to writing a symphony about the Last Stand, which took him to Israel in March to perform powerful Native singing, flute and drumming with the Israel Kibbutz Orchestra.As a multi-instrumentalist, Miller learned to play guitar first, at age 9, because his relatives were in a band. It wasn't until he was 21 that elders taught him to play Native flute.
Though art and music were always a part of Miller's life, he didn't think it was possible for him to carve out a career as a musician; after all, he didn't exactly have the opportunity to go to Julliard (though he did win a scholarship to attend a private high school). He learned everything by ear and experience, and by 19, he was playing in rock bands.
And that's when he could have gone either way: He could have followed in the footsteps of the grunge musicians he toured with, writing songs full of anger, pain and suffering based upon his own difficult childhood, or he could have chosen a more healing route with his music. He chose the latter.
He grew up with an alcoholic father who died in 1993 because of the disease. It took him years to get over the pain, but he used his music as a healing force.
“I could have been writing angry, painful, suffering (songs),” he said, “but I don't choose to deal with it that way. I think it's wrong. I chose to go from a victim to victory.”
He appreciated the honesty, intensity and straightforward approach the hard-rocking bands he toured with took, but ultimately, he saw writing about anger and pain as a dead-end, lacking in an answer other than, perhaps, self-destruction.
So he created music based on his three pillars: his Native American heritage, his faith and his life experience.
“That's where the core of my music came from, and that's where it should stay,” he said.
Musical horizons
But that's not to say that one can simply categorize Miller as a Native American musician; his music expands from that base.“I once heard Michael say, ‘We're stenographers of life as songwriters,'” Miller said.
Miller writes cinematic pieces that are more story oriented and use chords as a platform for take-off. For instance, rather than saying, “save the whales” in a song, he'd rather transport people to a place where they begin thinking about saving the whales themselves.
He views Copper Mountain as a great place to inspire such cinematic themes.
“There's something about the open sky, the mountains — it is more panoramic,” he said.
Murphey feels the same, and he also likes to bring people into the world of song through images. In fact, he's trying to simplify his songwriting more and more, rather than fill it with clever lines or rhymes. He sees songwriting bloated with artsy, cool turns of phrase as a trap many songwriters fell into in the 1960s and '70s, and these days, he prefers the plain style of writing, placed over a solid melody.
It's much like the approach wandering minstrels took in the Middle Ages — a way in which commoners could understand and relate to the news of the day.
But, just like the wandering minstrels Murphey specifically went to UCLA to study as an undergrad, he has spent years and years honing his skills. In the Middle Ages, minstrels studied under an apprentice for 14 years, first learning their instruments, then composing. Murphey learned his guitar in a similar way — by hanging out with musicians and asking questions.
And throughout the years, he's given back what he has attained, becoming a mentor to not only Miller, but also a host of musicians, right down to Lyle Lovett and Willie Nelson.
