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about

Frances taught me this song sitting around Waco campfires. We fad been singing it quite a while before I heard Willie's version.

lyrics

Livin' on the road my friend
Is gonna keep you free and clean
And now you wear your skin like iron
And your breath is hard as kerosene
Weren't you mamma's only boy?
Her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said
Good-bye, sank to your dream
Poncho was a bandit boy
His horse was fast as polished steel
He wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Poncho met his match, you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dyin' word
Oh but that's the way it goes
All the Federales, they say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose
Lefty he can't sing the blues
All night long like he used to
The dust that Poncho bit down South
Ended up in Lefty's mouth
The day they lay poor Poncho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
There ain't nobody knows
All the Federales they say
We could have had him any day
We only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose
The poets tell how Poncho fell
And Lefty's livin' in cheap hotels
The desert's quiet, Cleveland's cold
And so the story ends we're told
Poncho needs your prayers, it's true
Save a few for Lefty too
He only did what he had to do
And now he's growin' old
All the Federales, they say
We could have had him any day
They only let him go so long
Out of kindness I suppose
A few gray Federales, they say
Could have had him any day
We only let him go so long
Out of kindness I suppose

credits

from Out of the Nest, released April 24, 2020
Townnes Van Zandt

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Bedlam Bards Smithville, Texas

Hawke and Cedric, the Bedlam Bards, are famous for playing foot-stomping, heart-pounding music about outlaws, pirates, sailing ships, misadventures, and strong drink. Their performance style stresses passion before perfection, death before dishonor, and whiskey before breakfast. ... more

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