Preseason’s Greetings : Michael Martin Murphey will enhance the western flavor of annual benefit for the needy.

If you’re in the Antelope Valley on Sunday evening anywhere near the big tent on Sierra Highway in Palmdale, you’re going to hear some mighty guitar pickin’ and foot stompin’.

The fourth annual Cowboy Christmas Ball will be in full swing, featuring a concert by Michael Martin Murphey, a singer-songwriter who has led a resurgence in the popularity of western music.

The ball is being held this year on 10th Street between the local Youth Library and the Hammack Center because it outgrew its traditional venue in the Palmdale Playhouse auditorium. The charity concert, catered dinner and western-style dance help support the work of South Antelope Valley Emergency Services and the Palmdale Playhouse Visual and Performing Arts Program.

Tickets can be purchased at the entrance until 7 p.m. for $50 each, half of which is tax-deductible.

Murphey, whose concert begins at 8 p.m., has been championing western music since the 1970s. Western music, he says, is different from country music because the latter is rooted in Appalachia.

“The culture of the American West was built on principles of rugged individualism,” he said recently. “They are principles that are deeply important even today.”

A Texas native who grew up wrangling--and learning cowboy songs--at a ranch in Lewisville, he said his music reflects the simplicity of a cowboy’s life. “It’s the true essence of the American soul, which includes the freedom and right to roll up your bedroll and ride off into the sunset if you don’t like where you are,” he said.

His own restless energy has propelled his success, including concerts performed around the country, recording 20 albums and founding a record label through Warner Bros., Warner Western.

Now a resident of Taos, N.M., he stages five cowboy music festivals each summer in various adjacent Western states.

As to the connection between western music and Christmas, he points out that it’s been a tradition in parts of Texas for a century for ranchers to invite neighbors and ranch hands to a big meal and dancing each fall.

“I have often reflected on the wonderful country images of the Nativity,” he said. “Jesus was born in a stable and shepherds knew about it first. Christmas is a folksy story about small-town people.”

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Murphey has released a CD, “Acoustic Christmas Carols,” which includes songs he will perform Sunday, as well as cowboy music and poetry dating back to the 1800s.

Folks attending the event are encouraged to wear western garb and take a big appetite for the western-style buffet dinner. They also will be able to take lessons in old-time western dance and participate in a silent auction for Western Americana items.

Proceeds from the Cowboy Christmas Ball, and the nonperishable food item each attendee is asked to take, will help South Antelope Valley Emergency Services provide food, lodging and utility-bill assistance to local residents in need. Last year, the ball brought in $14,000 and 225 pounds of food.

BE THERE

Cowboy Christmas Ball on Sunday at 6:30 p.m., near the Palmdale Playhouse, 38334 10th St. East. Tickets: $50. (661) 267-ARTS or (661) 267-5685.