Buck Owens and His Buckaroos played an historic Carnegie Hall show in 1966,
immortalized on a live album. GAB Archive/Redferns
(l. – r. Willie Cantu, Tom Brumley, Buck Owens, Don Rich, and Doyle Holly)
I first heard, “Streets of Laredo” on the “Carnegie Hall Concert with Buck Owens and His Buckaroos” album as a kid. I wrote a post about the album last year for Song Lyric Sunday, which you can read here. As I imprinted on this cover of it as a kid, it remains my favorite and the best version, even if we also had a Marty Robbins album with it on there.
From wiki:
The lyrics appear to be primarily descended from an Irish folk song of the late 18th century called “The Unfortunate Rake,” which also evolved (with a time signature change and completely different melody) into the New Orleans standard “St. James Infirmary Blues.” The Irish ballad shares a melody with the British sea-song “Spanish Ladies.” The Bodleian Library, Oxford, has copies of a 19th-century broadside entitled “The Unfortunate Lad,” which is a version of the British ballad. Some elements of this song closely presage those in the “Streets of Laredo” and in the “St. James Infirmary Blues.”
The song is widely considered to be a traditional ballad. It was first published in 1910 in John Lomax’s Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads.”Streets of Laredo,” also known as “The Dying Cowboy,” is a famous American cowboy ballad in which a dying ranger tells his story to another cowboy. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. Streets of Laredo” has become a folk music standard, and as such has been performed, recorded and adapted numerous times, with many variations. The title refers to the city of Laredo, Texas.
Recordings of the song have been made by Cisco Houston, Vernon Dalhart, Eddy Arnold, Johnny Cash, Johnny Western, Joan Baez, Burl Ives, Jim Reeves, Roy Rogers, Marty Robbins, Chet Atkins, Arlo Guthrie, The Norman Luboff Choir, Rex Allen, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and many country and western singers, as well as avant garde rocker John Cale, the British pop group Prefab Sprout, Snakefarm, Mercury Rev, Jane Siberry, Suzanne Vega, Paul Westerberg, Buck Ramsey (singer & poet), and The Stone Coyotes. There is also a version on RCA’s How The West Was Won double album, Bing Crosby – 1960. Harry James recorded a version on his 1966 album Harry James & His Western Friends.
I chose the studio version of the song because the live version has some joking in it that I don’t like.
I searched for another good cover and looky what I found:
Glyn is the host of Mixed Music Bag. Glyn says:
Tao Talk 
Great song! It takes a confident man to wear (and look good) in those outfits!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes it does! I love those suits!
LikeLike
I love Snakefarm! At least the one album of theirs I know. There are some great covers on that album. Now I have to look to see what they are up to now…and I wonder if I can locate that CD.
They kind of have a website with videos but only ever put out one other album and don’t seem to be touring right now anyway.
It would be interesting to hear some of those covers…the Norman Luboff Choir? Well it’s a great song. Willie of course nails it. (K)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dangit, Kerfe, this cover by Snakefarm is fantastic!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, it’s pretty great. Thanks for the link.
LikeLiked by 1 person
p.s. Snakefarm has a definite Nick Cave flavor to it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, you’re right! I hadn’t thought of that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Norman Luboff Choir:
LikeLike
That’s hilarious! But the photos are great.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes :)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t think I had ever heard this song – thanks for the intro. It has the feel of a classic. I enjoyed both the Buck Owens and the Hank Williams versions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Christian, I love being the one to introduce this song to you. I found its origin story VERY interesting!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This a Cowboys Cowboy song if there ever was one. I do like Buck Owens a lot but I have to defer to Marty Robbins on this song. I had not heard the Hark Jr. version, thanks for that!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Randy, I know you like to hear the various covers. In the Irish original it was a soldier, by some accounts dying of syphilis.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A happy note there Lisa!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good choice. How low can Buck go? :)
LikeLiked by 1 person
lol on Buck. He is amazing isn’t he. I love the man and his music. Grew up listening to him, seeing him on Hee Haw. Such a gentle spirit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glyn, I didn’t think this sounded like the usual Buck, so I looked and found out:
Doyle Holly – bass, guitar, vocals (lead vocal on “Streets of Laredo”)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh! I see
LikeLiked by 1 person
A remarkably talented fellow.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not sure whose version of this I have in my head, and won’t even try to narrow it down! It was very interesting to read all the variety of artists that have covered the song. I just had to go over and find Cale’s cover… it is very unusual, so, not out of character for him. Amazing how musicians can create such varied interpretations of songs; his has a bit of a Spanish feel in parts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooh I like Cale’s cover! I can hear that Spanish flavor in there. To me the covers and their wide variation are like what jazz musicians do. They improvise but keep the melody line (or whatever it’s called) alive.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s an interesting take on jazz improvisation; makes a lot of sense.
LikeLiked by 1 person
:)
LikeLiked by 1 person