Cowboy Songs (Warner Bros. 9 26308-2, 1990) is the album on which Michael Martin Murphey — known through the 1970s and 1980s as a mainstream country-pop artist — pivoted decisively toward traditional Western music, recording twenty-one cowboy ballads, trail songs, and range standards rooted in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The album features John McEuen (banjo, mandolin, fiddle), Mark O'Connor (fiddle), and guest vocalists Tammy Wynette, Suzy Bogguss, and Highway 101. It peaked at #25 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and was certified Gold by the RIAA, launching a Western music series Murphey would extend across multiple follow-up volumes through the 1990s. The project helped revive mainstream interest in the cowboy song tradition at a pivotal moment.
Tracklist
- 1 Cowboy Logic 3:35
- 2 I Ride an Old Paint / Whoopee Ti-Yi-Yo, Git Along Little Doggies 3:01
- 3 Tumbling Tumbleweeds 2:21
- 4 Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail 3:07
- 5 The Old Chisholm Trail 4:47
- 6 Home on the Range 3:31
- 7 What Am I Doing Here 3:03
- 8 Wild Ripplin' Waters 1:48
- 9 The Yellow Rose of Texas 3:00
- 10 Spanish Is the Lovin' Tongue 5:41
- 11 Cowboy Pride 2:51
- 12 Red River Valley alt version 2:47
- 13 Let the Cowboy Dance 3:01
- 14 Jack of Diamonds 1:13
- 15 Texas Rangers 3:21
- 16 When the Work's All Done This Fall 3:18
- 17 The Streets of Laredo 4:07
- 18 O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie alt version 3:02
- 19 Where Do Cowboys Go When They Die / Reincarnation 3:43
- 20 Goodbye Old Paint 2:13
- 21 Happy Trails 2:17