Sonora's Death Row
Encyclopedia
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
Kevin "Blackie" Farrell and published by Drifter Music/Bug Music (BMI
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
), ©1975. Recorded covers
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of the song have been performed by Robert Earl Keen
Robert Earl Keen
Robert Earl Keen, Junior is an American Texas Country singer-songwriter. He is popular with fans of traditional country music, folk music, college radio, and alt-country. Keen currently resides in Kerrville, Texas and maintains a ranch in Medina, Texas.-Early life:Growing up in Houston, Texas,...
, Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...
, Michael Martin Murphey
Michael Martin Murphey
Michael Martin Murphey is an American singer-songwriter best known for writing and performing Western music, Country music, and Popular music. A multiple Grammy nominee, Murphey has six gold albums, including Cowboy Songs, the first album of cowboy music to achieve gold status since Gunfighter...
, Tom Russell
Tom Russell
Thomas George "Tom" Russell is an American singer-songwriter. Although most strongly identified with the Texas Country music tradition, his music also incorporates elements of folk, Tex-Mex, and the cowboy music of the American West. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists, including...
, Richard Shindell
Richard Shindell
Richard Shindell is an American folk songwriter. Shindell grew up in Port Washington, New York. He currently lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with his wife, a university professor, and their children....
, Dave Alvin
Dave Alvin
Dave Alvin , is a guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has been one of the leading proponents of 'roots' or 'American' music, bringing together elements of rock-and-roll, blues, rural and tejano music....
and others. The song was also printed in the 1995 Spring issue of Sing Out!
Sing Out!
Sing Out! is a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that has been published since May 1950.-Background:Sing Out! is the primary publication of the tax exempt, not-for-profit, educational corporation of the same name...
with the following introduction:
Legendary Texas RangerTexas Ranger DivisionThe Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas...
and ArizonaArizonaArizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
Border GuardBorder guardThe border guard, frontier guard, border patrol, border police, or frontier police of a country is a national security agency that performs border control, i.e., enforces the security of the country's national borders....
Jeff Milton once described SonoraSonoraSonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
as a hellHellIn many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
and a paradiseParadiseParadise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...
, Michael Martin Murphy tells us. Blackie Farrell's classic Old West balladBalladA ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
, Murphy says, "captures the dangers implicit in cowboys on a tequilaTequilaTequila is a spirit made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, northwest of Guadalajara, and in the highlands of the western Mexican state of Jalisco....
spree."
Storyline
A plot develops over the song's six verses (the song has no chorusStrophic form
Strophic form is the simplest and most durable of musical forms, elaborating a piece of music by repetition of a single formal section. This may be analyzed as "A A A..."...
). The song tells the story of a cowboy
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
who rides into the (Sonora is an actual Mexican State) Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
town of Sonora with his partners from the "Broken 'O'" ranch
Ranch
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...
on a Saturday night. After considerable drinking
Alcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...
and gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
in "Amanda’s Saloon" he imagines himself being robbed by his friends. His dream becomes a nightmare
Nightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
when in a drunken
Drunkenness
Alcohol intoxication is a physiological state that occurs when a person has a high level of ethanol in his or her blood....
rage he shoots and kills one of his friends. He soon finds himself contemplating his situation as he awaits his execution
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
. The story is told in the first person
First-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
and the final verse touches on many of the song's earlier motifs and ends with a repeated lament
Lament
A lament or lamentation is a song, poem, or piece of music expressing grief, regret, or mourning.-History:Many of the oldest and most lasting poems in human history have been laments. Laments are present in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, and laments continued to be sung in elegiacs accompanied by...
by the narrator:
- A nightmare of mezcalMezcalMezcal, or mescal, is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from the maguey plant native to Mexico. The word mezcal comes from Nahuatl metl and ixcalli which mean 'oven cooked agave.'...
was all that it was - No one had robbed me at all
- I wish I was dreamin' the sound of the gallowsGallowsA gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...
- They're testin' just outside the wall
- And the mezcal's still free in Amanda's saloon
- For the boys from the old Broken "O"
- I'd pay a ransomRansomRansom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or it can refer to the sum of money involved.In an early German law, a similar concept was called bad influence...
to drink there today - An' be free of Sonora's Death RowDeath rowDeath row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
- Yeah I'd pay a ransom to drink there today
- An' be free of Sonora's Death Row
Although the time period is not made clear in the song, a reference to a Winchester rifle
Winchester rifle
In common usage, Winchester rifle usually means any of the lever-action rifles manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, though the company has also manufactured many rifles of other action types...
suggest the account takes place in the late 19th or early 20th century. Also, though the song describes a town called Sonora, it is difficult to say whether the writer had a specific location in mind. Sonora
Sonora
Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
is actually a Mexican State
States of Mexico
The United Mexican States is a federal republic formed by 32 federal entities .According to the Constitution of 1917, the states of the federation are free and sovereign. Each state has their own congress and constitution, while the Federal District has only limited autonomy with a local Congress...
that accounts for a long stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
s of Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
and New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. Regarding his inspiration, Farrell himself has said: "I just envisioned a guy, saddling up his horse, riding off with his pals off the ranch, going into town just to blow off some steam on a Saturday night and winding up living a nightmare."
Recordings
The song has been recorded numerous times over the course of a thirty year period. Many of the cover artists are talented songwriters themselves. Versions by Alvin, Murphy, Keen, and Shindell have all received airplay in recent years by folk musicFolk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
DJs throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The most recent album to include the song, Dave Alvin's West of the West reached the top five on the Americana Chart in June 2006. Frequently this song has been included in recordings with other songs having themes dealing with the American Old West
American Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
.
Most of the recordings present the song in an acoustic
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
or country rock
Country rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...
setting, in some cases including an accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
or other instrumentation that give the song a traditional Mexican
Music of Mexico
The music of Mexico is very diverse and features a wide range of different musical styles. It has been influenced by a variety of cultures, most notably indigenous Mexican and European, since the Late Middle Ages...
feel. Some include complex guitar arrangements that employ alternative tunings. In a couple of cases artists have edited out a verse of the song to reduce its length. The individual tracks vary in length from 4:10 to 5:35.
Discography / notes
- The Moonlighters (Bill KirchenBill KirchenBill Kirchen is an American rockabilly guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was the guitarist with the original Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen from 1967 to the mid 1970s, although, in reality, his time with the Commander accounts for only a portion of his career...
, Nick LoweNick LoweNicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe , is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica...
, et al.): Moonlighters, 1977; Midnight in Memphis 1999.
- The first to record this classic song, singer and guitarist Bill Kirchen has become a long-time collaborator with songwriter Kevin Blackie Farrell. Kirchen describes their first meeting:
"I met him in 1969 when I went back to a girl's apartment to reclaim the Hank and Merle
Merle HaggardMerle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
albums that I'd left a couple of months before. I was going up the stairs for 'em just as he was heading down with 'em under his arm, and after some circling and sniffing, we've been fast friends ever since."- Kirchen's 2001, Tied to the Wheel, inclucdes two new recordings of songs by Farrell and features Farrell on several tracks.
- Leo KottkeLeo KottkeLeo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...
: Burnt LipsBurnt LipsBurnt Lips is an album by American guitarist Leo Kottke, released in 1978. It peaked at #143 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts.-History:Burnt Lips includes two selections from the soundtrack of Terrence Malick's film Days of Heaven. Only one is heard in the movie; an abbreviation of "The Train and...
, 1978; Essential Leo KottkeEssential Leo KottkeEssential is a compilation of American guitarist Leo Kottke's releases on the Chrysalis label, released in 1991. It includes liner notes by Fred Goodman....
, 1991; The Leo Kottke AnthologyThe Leo Kottke AnthologyThe Leo Kottke Anthology is a two-disc compilation of American guitarist Leo Kottke's releases on the Takoma, Capitol and Chrysalis labels, covering the first 15 years of his career. It includes liner notes by Kottke himself for each song and an essay by Mark Humphrey.A number of compilations have...
, 1997.
- Leo Kottke
- Kottke performs the song solo on guitarSteel-string acoustic guitarA steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound...
, apparently tuned to open G and using a mix of fingerpicking and slideSlide guitarSlide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
work.
- Robert Earl KeenRobert Earl KeenRobert Earl Keen, Junior is an American Texas Country singer-songwriter. He is popular with fans of traditional country music, folk music, college radio, and alt-country. Keen currently resides in Kerrville, Texas and maintains a ranch in Medina, Texas.-Early life:Growing up in Houston, Texas,...
: West TexturesWest TexturesWest Textures is an album by Texas-based folk singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen, released in the United States in 1989 on Sugar Hill. It is notable for the track "The Road Goes On Forever" which has become one of Keen's signature songs and has been covered by other bands including the country...
, 1989; No. 2 Live DinnerNo. 2 Live DinnerNo. 2 LIVE Dinner is an album of live music by Texas-based folk singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen, released in the United States in 1996) on Sugar Hill Records. The performances are from two different dates, the first fourteen tracks were recorded at Floores Country Store in Helotes, TX on August...
, 1996; No. 2 Live Dinner (DVD), 2004.
- Keen has recorded the song twice, first as a largely acoustic studio performance and then years later in a live concert employing his full electrified band. His recording has been transcribed for guitar in E-flat, placing a capoCapoA capo is a device used on the neck of a stringed instrument to shorten the playable length of the strings, hence raising the pitch. It is frequently used on guitars, mandolins, and banjos. G.B...
at the 3rd fret and playing the chords in C-position- Tom RussellTom RussellThomas George "Tom" Russell is an American singer-songwriter. Although most strongly identified with the Texas Country music tradition, his music also incorporates elements of folk, Tex-Mex, and the cowboy music of the American West. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists, including...
: Cowboy Real, 1991.
- Tom Russell
- As with Kottke's recording, Russell omits the first verse of the song. Russell once referred to the song as "the best cowboy twist-of-fate song ever written."
- Michael Martin MurpheyMichael Martin MurpheyMichael Martin Murphey is an American singer-songwriter best known for writing and performing Western music, Country music, and Popular music. A multiple Grammy nominee, Murphey has six gold albums, including Cowboy Songs, the first album of cowboy music to achieve gold status since Gunfighter...
, Cowboy Songs III:Rhymes of The Renegades, 1993.
- Michael Martin Murphey
- (See comments above in introduction.)
- Ronnie Glover, Nothing Ever Changes, 1999
- Hear a sample recording (mp3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
) by Ronnie Glover from Bills Beer and Bait Shop- Dave Stamey, Campfire Waltz, 2001 (CD)
- Richard ShindellRichard ShindellRichard Shindell is an American folk songwriter. Shindell grew up in Port Washington, New York. He currently lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with his wife, a university professor, and their children....
, The Sonora Sessions (a live bonus EPExtended playAn EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
offered with CourierCourier (album)Courier is the first live recording and sixth album by Richard Shindell. It includes many of his most popular originals from previous recordings, a cover of Lowell George's classic song, "Willin'", and what has been described as a "near-holy reading" of Bruce Springsteen's "Fourth of July, Asbury...
), 2002.
- Shindell performs a version on guitar in DADGADDADGADDADGAD, D modal tuning or Celtic tuning is an alternative guitar tuning most associated with Celtic music, though it has also found use in rock and other genres. Instead of the standard EADGBE tuning, the six guitar strings are tuned, from low to high, DADGAD...
tuning with a capo positioned at the third fret (key of F).- Dave AlvinDave AlvinDave Alvin , is a guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has been one of the leading proponents of 'roots' or 'American' music, bringing together elements of rock-and-roll, blues, rural and tejano music....
, West of the West, 2006.
- Dave Alvin
- Alvin's recording omits the song's second verse. Regarding his own recording Alvin has stated: "'Sonora's Death Row' has been recorded by people like Robert Earl Keen, Leo Kottke and Michael Martin Murphy, and they all did fantastic interpretations. I tried to make my version different than the others by giving it less of a Mexican border song groove. I wanted it to sound more like a traditional AppalachianOld-time musicOld-time music is a genre of North American folk music, with roots in the folk music of many countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland and countries in Africa. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dance, buck dance, and clogging. The genre also...
folk song that somehow got lost in the middle of Death ValleyDeath ValleyDeath Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below...
on the hottest day of August with no water and no sun screen."- Jeffrey FoucaultJeffrey FoucaultJeffrey Foucault is a singer-songwriter from Whitewater, Wisconsin. His 2001 debut album, Miles from the Lightning, won much praise from critics and helped to kick-start a career of tours across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Along the way, he has played with such artists as Greg Brown,...
& Mark ErelliMark ErelliMark Erelli is an American folk singer/songwriter from Reading, Massachusetts. He currently resides in Massachusetts. Erelli is a 1996 graduate of Bates College, where he majored in Biology, and holds a Master's Degree in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Massachusetts...
on Seven Curses (2010)
- Jeffrey Foucault