"Tear-Stained Letter" is the opening track from Richard Thompson's 1983 album Hand of Kindness

Hand of Kindness

Hand Of Kindness is an album by Richard Thompson recorded and released in 1983.After the "Tour From Hell" to promote Shoot Out The Lights Richard Thompson resumed a solo career as a recording and performing artist....

. Its length is 4 minutes and 44 seconds. The main riff is performed on saxophones by Pete Thomas and Pete Zorn, who also performs the background vocals, and on accordion by John Kirkpatrick. The coda features a duet between a sax solo, accordion solo, and guitar solo

Guitar solo

In popular music, a guitar solo is a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, jazz, rock and metal styles such...

 by Richard Thompson.

Country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singer Jo-El Sonnier

Jo-El Sonnier

Jo-El Sonnier is an American singer-songwriter and accordionist who performs country music and Cajun music. Originally signed to Mercury Nashville Records, Sonnier charted several minor singles on the Billboard country charts in the late 1970s...

 covered the song on his 1988 album Come On Joe. His version was released as a single in 1988, reaching number nine on the Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 charts.

In addition, fellow country singer Patty Loveless

Patty Loveless

Patty Loveless , is an American country music singer.Since her emergence on the country music scene in late 1986 with her first album, Loveless has been one of the most popular female singers of the Neotraditional country movement, although she has also recorded albums in the Country pop and...

 covered the song on her 1996 album The Trouble with the Truth

The Trouble with the Truth

The Trouble with the Truth is the eighth album by country music artist Patty Loveless. It peaked at #10 on the Billboard Top Country albums charts, and #86 on the Pop charts...

.

Chart performance

Chart (1988)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks	9
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	6