"Sonora’s Death Row" is a story song written by

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

Kevin "Blackie" Farrell and published by Drifter Music/Bug Music ( BMI)''

Sing Out! ''Sing Out!'' was a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that was published from May 1950 through spring 2014. It was originally based in New York City, with a national circulation of approximately 10,000 by 1960. Background ''Sing O ...

'', Vol. 39 #4, p. 86, Spring 1995 (se
Sing Out! index
.The early Leo Kottke recording lists the publisher as "Asleep at the Wheel/Drifter Music (BMI)" (Farrell was once involved with the band

Asleep at the Wheel Asleep at the Wheel is an American country music, Western swing music group that was formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, in 1970, and is based in Austin, Texas. The band has won nine Grammy Awards, released over 20 albums, and has charted more t ...

). Publication, however, is now administered b
Bug Music
Recorded covers of the song have been performed by

Robert Earl Keen Robert Earl Keen (born January 11, 1956) is an American country singer and songwriter from Houston, Texas. Early life and education Keen was born and grew up in Houston, Texas. As a teenager, he was an avid reader who excelled in writing an ...

Leo Kottke Leo Kottke (born September 11, 1945) is an American acoustic guitarist. He is known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, and for syncopated, polyphonic melodies. He has overcome a series of personal obstacles, i ...

Michael Martin Murphey Michael Martin Murphey (born March 14, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter. He was one of the founding artists of progressive country. A multiple Grammy nominee, Murphey has six gold albums, including ''Cowboy Songs (Michael Martin Murphey alb ...

, Tom Russell,

Richard Shindell Richard Shindell (born August 3, 1960) is an American Folk music, folk singer, songwriter, producer, and musician. Shindell grew up in Port Washington, New York, Port Washington, New York, and now lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with his wife ...

, Dave Alvin,

Johnny Rodriguez Juan Raoul Davis "Johnny" Rodriguez (December 10, 1951 – May 9, 2025) was an American country music singer from Texas. In the 1970s and 1980s, Rodriguez was one of country music's most successful male artists, recording a string of hit songs, ...

and others. The song was also printed in the 1995 Spring issue of ''

'' with the following introduction:

Legendary Texas Ranger and Arizona Border Guard Jeff Milton once described Sonora as a hell and a paradise, Michael Martin Murphey tells us. Blackie Farrell's classic Old West ballad, Murphey says, "captures the dangers implicit in cowboys on a
tequila Tequila (; ) is a liquor, distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, Jalisco, Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands (''Los Altos (Jal ...
spree."

Storyline

A plot develops over the song's six verses (the song has no

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in whic ...

). The song tells the story of a

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'' ...

who rides into the Mexican town of Sonora with his partners from the "Broken 'O'"

ranch A ranch (from /Mexican Spanish) is an area of landscape, land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of farm. These terms are most often ap ...

on a Saturday night. After considerable

drinking Drinking is the act of ingesting water or other liquids into the body through the mouth, proboscis, or elsewhere. Humans drink by swallowing, completed by peristalsis in the esophagus. The physiological processes of drinking vary widely among ...

and

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...

in "Amanda’s Saloon" he imagines himself being robbed by his friends. His dream becomes a

nightmare A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, Retrieved 11 July 2016. is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety, disgust or sadness. The dream may contain situations o ...

when in a

drunken Alcohol intoxication, commonly described in higher doses as drunkenness or inebriation, and known in overdose as alcohol poisoning, is the behavior and physical effects caused by recent consumption of alcohol. The technical term ''intoxication ...

rage he shoots and kills one of his friends. He soon finds himself contemplating his situation as he awaits his

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in ...

. The story is told in the first person and the final verse touches on many of the song's earlier motifs and ends with a repeated

lament A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...

by the narrator: Although the time period is not made clear in the song, a reference to a

Winchester rifle Winchester rifle is a comprehensive term describing a series of lever action repeating rifles manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Developed from the 1860 Henry rifle, Winchester rifles were among the earliest repeaters. Th ...

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 (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

is actually a

Mexican State A Mexican State (), officially the Free and Sovereign State (), is a constituent federative entity of Mexico according to the Constitution of Mexico. Currently there are 31 states, each with its own constitution, government, state governor, a ...

that accounts for a long stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

s of

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

and

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. 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."Songwriter’s art mimics life – and vice versa
(accessed Sept. 13, 2006 fro
realcountrymusic.org
), story about Kevin Farrell by Brooke Bryant, originally published in the ''

Contra Costa Times The ''East Bay Times'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Walnut Creek, California, United States, owned by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of Media News Group, that serves Contra Costa and Alameda counties, in the East ...

'', January, 2006, and accessed June 8, 200
here

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 music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

DJs throughout the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

.FolkDJ-L
the global discussion forum for Folk Djs, (us
search form
to find playlists including "Sonora's Death Row"). The most recent album to include the song before Johnny Rodriguez's 2011 ''Live from Texas'', Dave Alvin's ''West of the West'' reached the top five on the ''Americana Chart'' in June 2006.Archive playlist for week of June 19, 2006
accessed October 12, 2006. Shows ''West of the West'' ranked 5th (w/ 374 spins on 54 stations), down from 4th (w/362 spins on 53 stations) in the previous week
See here
for current chart. Frequently this song has been included in recordings with other songs having themes dealing with the

American Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...

. Most of the recordings present the song in an acoustic or

country rock Country rock is a music genre that fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal sty ...

setting, in some cases including an

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

or other instrumentation that give the song a traditional Mexican 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.Tom Russell's version appears to be the shortest at 4:10, while Dave Alvin's comes in at 5:35.

Discography / notes

*The Moonlighters ( Bill Kirchen, The Moonlightersentry at

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

. ''Moonlighters'', 1977; ''Midnight in Memphis'' 1999. ''Moonlighters'' albumentry at Allmusic. :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 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.Bill Kirchen, ''Tied to the Wheel'' notes

:Kirchen's 2001, ''Tied to the Wheel'', inclucdes two new recordings of songs by Farrell and features Farrell on several tracks. *

: '' Burnt Lips'', 1978; '' Essential Leo Kottke'', 1991; '' The Leo Kottke Anthology'', 1997. : Kottke performs the song solo on

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, apparently tuned to open G and using a mix of

fingerpicking Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with a single plectr ...

and

slide Slide or Slides may refer to: Places * Slide, California, former name of Fortuna, California Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Slide'' (Lisa Germano album), 1998 * ''Slide'' (George Clanton album), 2018 *''Slide'', by Patrick Glee ...

work.Leo Kottke's Cover of "Sonora's Death Row"
from the Acoustic Guitar Forum. *

: '' West Textures'', 1989; '' No. 2 Live Dinner'', 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 capo at the 3rd fret and playing the chords in C-positionRobert Earl Keen lyrics and chords
from getsome.org. * Tom Russell: '' Cowboy Real'', 1991. Tom Russell, ''Cowboy Real''entry at Allmusic. :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."Richard Shindell lyrics and chords
*

, '' Cowboy Songs III:Rhymes of The Renegades'', 1993. Michael Martin Murphey, ''Cowboy Songs 3''entry at Allmusic. : (See comments above in introduction.) *

, '' The Sonora Sessions'' (a live bonus EP offered with ''Courier''),Richard Shindell
at fishrecords.co.uk. 2002. : Shindell performs a version on guitar in DADGAD tuning with a capo positioned at the third fret (key of F). * Dave Alvin, '' West of the West'', 2006. Dave Alvin, ''West of the West''entry at Allmusic. : Alvin's recording omits the song's second verse."Under Cover: Dave Alvin paints it blue"
by Andrew Marcus, ''

Phoenix New Times ''Phoenix New Times'' is a free digital and print media company based in Phoenix, Arizona. ''Phoenix'' ''New Times'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music, arts, cannabis, as well as longform narrative journalism. A ...

'' June 22, 2006 (accessed October 12, 2006). 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 Appalachian folk song that somehow got lost in the middle of Death Valley on the hottest day of August with no water and no sun screen."Interview with Dave Alvin
from hello.apo.nmsu.edu, (accessed September 2006). * Jeffrey Foucault & Mark Erelli on ''Seven Curses'' (2010)

Sources and notes

External links

* * {{Authority control American folk songs Culture of the Western United States Leo Kottke songs Robert Earl Keen songs Appalachian music