Blue Sky - Night Thunder
by Michael Martin Murphey

Michael Martin Murphey seems like a hell of a nice guy. As friendly laid-back nature boys go, he's a lot less hokey than John Denver and a lot less huckster-ish than Jimmy Buffett (who's shameless marketing gimmicks would make him the singer-songwriter equivalent of KISS). Murphey is the real deal, and his sincerity comes through in his songs.

This is his biggest hit album. It includes the Billboard Top 3 hit "Wildfire", which may have worn out it's welcome from years of AM radio saturation. But if you can put your post-punk cynicism aside, it's still a very pretty and affecting tune about a missing horse. Follow-up single "Carolina in the Pines" (which rose to #21 in the US) is also very nice. In fact, there's not a bad song here. Nothing earth-shattering, but a very pleasant country-pop listen that never falls into the contrived cheese-whiz territory that the aforementioned artists often reside in. Debut album 'Geronimo's Cadillac' is Murphey's masterpiece, but if you like that album as much as I do, this is a good one to listen to next.

[EDIT: A friend of mine noted my use of a spelling "mistake" in this review when I wrote "worn out it's welcome" instead of "worn out its welcome". For the record, I do that on purpose. I've always deliberately ignored the its/it's rule, as it seems arbitrary and it contradicts the more important rule of using an apostrophe to distinguish possessive singular forms from simple plural forms. If a few people think I'm stupid or illiterate because of it, then f**k 'em.]

From Fischman 12/31/2018 21:38 | #228408

His best album, and not just because it's the one with 'Wildfire.'