Santa Fe Trail: Chasing the Big West

Description

Santa Fe Trail: Chasing the Big West

poems and songs by karla k. morton and Alan Birkelbach
with music by Michael Martin Murphey and art by Bob Boze Bell

Santa Fe Trail: Chasing the Big West is a special
limited edition hardback
with music CD by Michael Martin Murphey
and original art by Bob Boze Bell

ISBN: 978-1-963695-39-7 hardback $29.95

The Santa Fe Trail began in 1821 when William Becknell headed west with a wagon full of goods. While this trail was used by voyageurs and American Natives for years, Becknell’s trip opened the American West. So many headed out with stories of their own that became inseparable poems and music. This book/audiobook aims to preserve the 200-year history of the trail by culturally carrying it into the future with the words of Texas Poets Laureate karla k. morton and Alan Birkelbach, the music of Michael Martin Murphey, and the art of Bob Boze Bell. This is the essence of America moving into a new world.

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Santa Fe Trail: Chasing the Big West: contributors

karla k. morton is a Texican. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, she’s been co-living and loving New Mexico and the Big West her entire life. Her famous M.L. Leddy’s boots have been re-soled four times and she has traveled to all 63 National Parks. With 16 published books so far, she’s won a Western Heritage Wrangler Award and a Spur Award. She was named Texas State Poet Laureate in 2010 and is a Nominee for the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Madville also published karla’s award-winning 2023 poetry collection, Turbulence & Fluids.

Alan Birkelbach, a Texas native of British-German heritage, is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, Western Writers of America, and The Academy of American Poets. He is a Spur Award Winner and two-time international Indie Book Award Finalist. “I’m convinced there are still echoes on the old westbound trails, songs vibrating in the rocks and ruins. All we have to do is listen.” Alan was appointed by the Texas Legislature as the 2005 Poet Laureate of Texas. He currently lives in New Mexico in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Michael Martin Murphey was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Western Heritage Awards committee in 2019. The National & Western Heritage Museum honored him for his producing and celebrating western music. “In the Old West,” Murphey said, “songs were shared by pioneers, cattlemen, ranchers, painted ladies and even gunslingers as a way of keeping the West alive. I have always been drawn to songs about the love of the land, the strength of the prairie folks, the dusty trails, the mythic tales and the legends of a bygone era. I have always admired Westerners for their stubborn determination and deep love of life. That’s what I celebrate in my music.”

Bob Boze Bell’s artwork has appeared in comic books and history books; on beer cans, in newspapers and even on TV. He got a movie deal on his cartoon creation Honkytonk Sue, and won an Emmy for Outrageous Arizona, a look at his beloved home during the centennial of statehood. He also has a thing for the Old West’s most notorious outlaws, like Billy the Kid and Jesse James. He has been the executive editor and co-owner of True West magazine for the past 25 years. Oh, and he grew up on the historic Route 66 and has two books about that as well!

Santa Fe Trail

Once upon a time they said-
the west was wide.
I headed from Missouri
to ride and ride.

I found there in the cactus,
a horseshoe in the sand—
full of buck and promise,
burning in my hand.

Santa Fe, far away—
the trail is marked in stone.
I hold my luck and it holds me.
I’m headed down to red Raton.

…

—kk and AB