Romancing the West comes to the Museum of North Idaho’s Fort Sherman Chapel on Sunday, September 25th at 2:00pm. Singer/songwriter Christina Lynn Martin and Cowboy Poet and Balladeer Butch Martin co-produce and perform in the time traveling documentary concert telling the human story of over 250 years of the people of the American West through their trials, tribulations and triumphs and celebrating their diverse cultures, lives and legacies.

The story of Western Expansionism ranch history is told in historic photographs, rare film, video, live poetry and original music written by Christina, songs about the West including “City of Roses” (Portland), “California” “Columbia” (Columbia River) and “Oh Oregon” written for the 150th birthday of Oregon. Butch recites master poems of the old West like “The Ballad of William Sycamore”. As the show moves from the old West into the modern West the music ranges from traditional Western, folk/Celtic to jazz, big band and pop/rock. Within the show is a moving tribute to veterans, a majestic musical tribute to National Parks, and to hometown America.

This April marks the ninth consecutive year of touring with the show in National Trail Centers, concert series, and theaters throughout the Country from California, Nevada and Oregon, to Idaho, Colorado, Montana and the Midwest as well as Butch’s beloved Wind River Valley, in Wyoming, where he had a Morgan Ranch on the Wind River for many years in the 1970’s-1990’s, a treasured time in his life spent with closest friends like Darrell Winfield of Marlboro fame and game Warden Kay Bowles.

The Martin’s mission continues to be “to foster love and respect for our fellow man and the love of this land by telling the sometimes painful story of Western Expansionism and celebrating the diverse cultures whose stories continue to inform and inspire our Nation and our world.” The couple make their home in a log cabin in Applegate Valley at Cougar Mountain Ranch surrounded by kids and grandkids, where they also record their weekly radio show Whittler’s Corner and its history segment “Time Travels through the American West”.