"The cowboy is really our only folk identity, in terms of mythology. Throughout the world, there's only one way you identify yourself as an American, and that's if you put on a cowboy hat. When people start to say, 'What does it mean to be an American?' you're eventually gonna confront the cowboy symbol. People attach all kinds of meaning to it too, from self-reliance to riding off into the sunset to being close to nature to looking at a cigarette ad, so some way or another, if you're an American you're going to have to get that cowboy image a little bit, to understand it." - Michael Martin Murphey

Read Kerry Dexter's full interview with Michael Martin Murphey in Dirty Linen #74.