I’ve been trying to decide whether or not to write a little bit under each of these covers, and this time I decided yes.
I first heard this song played by my friend Leo in high school, just about the time that I was really starting to hone my fingerpicking chops. I knew it as a Townes Van Zandt song long before I heard the Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard version. Townes’ original version (actually, to be specific, this rendition) is still better. Don’t get me wrong – I love those other guys – but Townes really had a cowboy way of singing it, filled with lonesomeness and sorrow.
Anyway, this song is a perfect display of the Travis picking style that I use in so many of my songs (see: Me & All My Friends Have Got the Blues, Flight to JFK), and lemme tell ya, it really hits when you’re half drunk sitting around a campfire.
Enjoy!
Pancho & Lefty (Backyard Version)