JACK HURST - Chicago Tribune
Cowboy Songs, Michael Martin Murphey (Warner Bros). The Year`s best album, Murphey`s ''Cowboy Songs,'' is from the last-mentioned category, an impeccably crafted, researched and sung collection of songs of the prairie old and new. They span a spectrum from old chestnuts such as ''Home on the Range'' (which you have never heard done as well as Murphey and Tammy Wynette do it), obscure antiques such as ''Texas Rangers'' (an unforgettably graphic and chilling contemporary account of a fight with Indians), and such earthy and humorous new tunes as ''Cowboy Logic'' and ''Reincarnation.'' 12/2/90