Michael Martin Murphey returns for Andy Rieber benefit concert

Grammy nominated and Texas Country Music Hall of Fame performer Michael Martin Murphey and the Rio Grande Band will perform in Lakeview on Friday, April 8 at the Elks Lodge. The show is Murphey’s second in Lake County in the last four months intended as a fundraiser to help a Lake County local with medical bills for Lyme Disease treatment. The purpose of the show is to help with medical bills for Adel resident Andy Rieber, who has been battling Lyme Disease for the past 13 years. Last December a sold-out dinner concert with Murphey was held at Adel Community Hall, the event raising approximately $6,000 for Rieber. With ticket demand so high for that show it was deemed necessary to add the Lakeview event as well. Additionally Murphey will play two more shows to assist Rieber, at the Slickfork Saloon in Pendleton on Saturday, April 9 and at the Tower Theater in Bend on Sunday, April 10. Murphey’s concert in Lakeview comes just days before the release of his latest album—“High Stakes: Cowboy Songs VII”—a tribute to the beauties and hardships of the lives of working cattle ranchers. As a rare treat, “Murph” will give concert-goers a pre-release sampling of his new songs. The concert will be preceded by a steak dinner and the auction of an autographed Michael Martin Murphey guitar. Rieber is well known in Lake County, and has worked for years as a journalist and consultant, telling the story of ranchers to the wider public and helping to protect the ability of ranchers to graze on public lands. Her disease treatments have demanded repeated lengthy trips to Germany, resulting in extensive transportation and medical bills. The benefit is being produced by Murphey’s non-profit foundation Murphey Western Institute—“A center for the education, preservation, and perpetuation of the arts, culture, history and legacy of the American West.”...more