Steve Earle and the Dukes - State Trooper

The original is amazing (and a Suicide pastiche, specifically "Frankie Teardrop", as my brother pointed out to me) but I did a Highwaymen cover of a Steve Earle song, so here's Earle covering the Boss (and I'll have to find Springsteen covering someone else eventually so I can keep going.)

This one came up for me because the original closes out "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano", the last episode of the first season of "The Sopranos". I decided to do a full series rewatch this summer and, while there are still things about the show I don't love, it generally holds up awfully well, and it's interesting to see the show as a whole piece, already knowing where everyone's arc is headed. It's a show that I have some qualms about (unlike other shows we've discussed, like "Breaking Bad" or "The Wire", that I love wholeheartedly) but you know, it really is damn good, and it laid the groundwork for those shows in a pretty straight line from A to B.



(And not to go off on another tangent but this is obviously from "Austin City Limits", another great repository of televised live music.)

The Highwaymen - The Devil's Right Hand

The original Steve Earle version plays in Brokeback Mountain when Ennis meets the Linda Cardellini character in the bar. It's probably better, but this one is twangier, which is what I was looking for. Johnny Cash also recorded a sparse, bluesy version solo on one of his late-period albums.



Ian Stuart, of all people, also recorded a version with one of his bands, and I guess all one can do is enjoy the irony of that sack of shit recording a song by one of the all-time great leftist rabble-rousers. I'm not posting his version, I'll post this instead: