Cowboy Songs

This was the first Michael Martin Murphy album I purchased. The songs on this album cover a wide spectrum of cowboy songs, real Western music which is distinctly different from Country music. Some of the songs evoke real deep emotions, the kind that a cowboy would experience whether he was alone on the trail, riding a cattledrive or in a frontier town where anything could happen. The album contains a lot of favourites like Tumbling Tumbleweeds and Happy Trails. It has a few that have become favourites. There are a couple that will make you laugh like Cowboy Logic and especially Where Do Cowboys Go When They Die/Reincarnation. Murphy is accompanied by many well know artists and the album insert has a small writeup on each song revealing some very interesting information about the songs development and history. Murphy has a easy listening quality to his music and has given me reason to buy three of his other albums. Cowboy Songs III, Cowboy Songs IV and Sagebrush...Read more

Murphey has always been a cowboy...his second solo album was titled based on his classic song "Cosmic Cowboy." But early in his career his cosmic cowboy persona was a modernizing of the cowboy myth, a guy as he said could work cattle in the day and discuss philosophy in the night. This album was a return to his western roots, a tribute to the cowboy myth. And a very effective tribute it is. A mix of new songs celebrating the cowboy lifestyle and traditional cowboy songs, the album is very effective and is not only a highlight of Murphey's career but a good introduction to western songs. The booklet is almost scholarly in it's description of the history of the traditional songs. However, it is not dry, but a very entertaining and detailed filled stories behind the songs. Very highly recommended.

Cowboy songs existed before country music and became popular with a wider public in the thirties and forties because of their use in western movies. Marty Robbins and others continued to record them, but they gradually faded into obscurity. With this album, Michael revived the old songs and renewed public interest in them.

The set opens with the brilliant Cowboy logic, a song about the way cowboys think and ends with Happy trails, a Roy Rogers classic. In between, there are many cowboy classics, including Tumbling tumbleweeds, The old Chisholm trail, Home on the range, Yellow rose of Texas, Red river valley, Streets of Laredo, Bury me not on the lone prairie and Goodbye old paint.

Michael contributes three of his own songs, What I am I doing here, Let the cowboy dance and Where do cowboys go when they die  all of a high quality. He also covers Cowboy pride, a song written by Ian Tyson, a Canadian singer who has also demonstrated his love of cowboy music by recording several...Read more