CD-Charts Position 1
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Cowboy Christmas

by: Michael Martin Murphey

Release Date September 10, 1991
What I particularly appreciate about this album is that it is radically different from any Christmas album I've come across, yet it is an extremely entertaining album (albeit slow to get going) that might appeal to some people who wouldn't normally listen to country music in general or cowboy music in particular.

The inspiration for this album was a particularly severe blizzard that hit New Mexico in 1990. Michael's family was snowed in. Power and water supplies were cut. So it was, in many ways, an old-fashioned Christmas more like those of the nineteenth century. Michael wanted to recapture some of that spirit in his music. The album is programmed so the first nine tracks are about Christmas on the range, while the remaining ten ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
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Cowboy Songs

by: Michael Martin Murphey

Release Date August 13, 1990
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, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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Cowboy Songs III

by: Michael Martin Murphey

Release Date October 12, 1993
Cowboy music was given a massive boost when Michael recorded several albums in the nineties full of cowboy songs. Not since the heyday of Marty Robbins had any singer had any singer been so successful with such music.

Marty's influence is evident from Big iron, the opening track, a duet between Michael and Marty made possible by modern studio techniques - Marty died in 1982, ten or eleven years before this album was recorded. Michael also covered Marty's classic cowboy song, El Paso.

Several cowboys are the subject of songs here - Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Frank James, Cole Younger and Sam Bass. Michael recognises women's contribution to the old west with Belle star (generally described as a brazen hussy, according to Michael's ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
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Sagebrush Symphony

by: Michael Martin Murphey

Release Date September 15, 1995
Cowboy music was given a massive boost when Michael recorded several albums in the nineties full of cowboy songs. Not since the heyday of Marty Robbins had any singer had any singer been so successful with such music.

Marty's influence is evident from Big iron, the opening track, a duet between Michael and Marty made possible by modern studio techniques - Marty died in 1982, ten or eleven years before this album was recorded. Michael also covered Marty's classic cowboy song, El Paso.

Several cowboys are the subject of songs here - Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Frank James, Cole Younger and Sam Bass. Michael recognises women's contribution to the old west with Belle star (generally described as a brazen hussy, according to Michael's ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
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The Best of Michael Martin Murphey

by: Michael Martin Murphey

Release Date June 06, 1995
Cowboy music was given a massive boost when Michael recorded several albums in the nineties full of cowboy songs. Not since the heyday of Marty Robbins had any singer had any singer been so successful with such music.

Marty's influence is evident from Big iron, the opening track, a duet between Michael and Marty made possible by modern studio techniques - Marty died in 1982, ten or eleven years before this album was recorded. Michael also covered Marty's classic cowboy song, El Paso.

Several cowboys are the subject of songs here - Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Frank James, Cole Younger and Sam Bass. Michael recognises women's contribution to the old west with Belle star (generally described as a brazen hussy, according to Michael's ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
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Wildfire 1972-1984

by: Michael Martin Murphey

Release Date October 01, 1999
Cowboy music was given a massive boost when Michael recorded several albums in the nineties full of cowboy songs. Not since the heyday of Marty Robbins had any singer had any singer been so successful with such music.

Marty's influence is evident from Big iron, the opening track, a duet between Michael and Marty made possible by modern studio techniques - Marty died in 1982, ten or eleven years before this album was recorded. Michael also covered Marty's classic cowboy song, El Paso.

Several cowboys are the subject of songs here - Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Frank James, Cole Younger and Sam Bass. Michael recognises women's contribution to the old west with Belle star (generally described as a brazen hussy, according to Michael's ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
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Flowing Free Forever

by: Michael Martin Murphey

Release Date July 30, 2007
Yeah, this , of all M, mURPHEY ALBUMS, WAS SURELY A MASTERPIECE..the songs are still so strong and so , so memorable , even all these years later..flowing free, the title cut , will always be a favourite michael murphey tune ..just beautiful , the lyrics /the voice/the musicianship ..superb , as arre practically all the songs on here , just one superb album to treasure on the hi-fi!!"Changing woman" has a great hook to it ..wonderful bass /drums here .."cHEROKEE FIDDLE"..who could forget this one, either!"Yellow house", another timeless M.M. .beaut., romantic and hauntingly beautiful.."Lady of Santa fe"..i just love how catchy this song is, ..still!..the closer .."Wandering Minstrel"..is an absolutely stunning track..words/vocals truly show just how original ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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River of Time

by: Michael Martin Murphey

Release Date October 25, 1990
Yeah, this , of all M, mURPHEY ALBUMS, WAS SURELY A MASTERPIECE..the songs are still so strong and so , so memorable , even all these years later..flowing free, the title cut , will always be a favourite michael murphey tune ..just beautiful , the lyrics /the voice/the musicianship ..superb , as arre practically all the songs on here , just one superb album to treasure on the hi-fi!!"Changing woman" has a great hook to it ..wonderful bass /drums here .."cHEROKEE FIDDLE"..who could forget this one, either!"Yellow house", another timeless M.M. .beaut., romantic and hauntingly beautiful.."Lady of Santa fe"..i just love how catchy this song is, ..still!..the closer .."Wandering Minstrel"..is an absolutely stunning track..words/vocals truly show just how original ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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Horse Legends [Us Import]

by: Michael Martin Murphey

Release Date December 23, 1999
Whatever reason you love horses for, there is something to interest you here. This is not a cowboy album, although it will no dount appeal to lovers of cowboy music. Michael wrote several of the songs, but also covered some classic equine songs.

There are two songs about thoroughbred racing, Run for the roses (Dan Fogelberg's ode to the Kentucky Derby) and The running blood, a more general song. There is also a song about quarter horses (Quarter horse rider).

Ponies was first recorded by Michael Johnson in the eighties and was later lovingly covered by Lynn Anderson (an expert equestrian) on her Cowboy's sweetheart album, which also included Run for the roses.

Tennessee stud (featuring Johnny Cash) was originally a Jimmy Driftwood ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
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The Best of Country

by: Michael Martin Murphey

Release Date July 16, 1990
Michael's career has gone through several changes culminating in his switch to cowboy music in the nineties, but this compilation highlights the easy-listening country love songs that he recorded for EMI in the eighties.

Michael wrote most of his own material but the best song here, What's forever for, is from the pen of Rafe Van Hoy. The only other song here that Michael didn't have a hand in writing, What she wants, is another fine song.

Of the songs that Michael wrote or co-wrote, I particularly like Carolina in the pines, The two-step is easy and Lost river, but the others are all of a high quality.

Ultimately, it seems that Michael will go down in history as the man who revived cowboy music in the nineties, but this very different, ... Read More: