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. Frequently this song has been included in recordings with other songs having themes dealing with the American Old West. Most of the recordings present the song in an acoustic or country rock setting, in some cases including an accordion 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. Discography / notes The Moonlighters (Bill Kirchen, Moonlighters, 1977; Midnight in Memphis 1999. 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. Kirchen's 2001, Tied to the Wheel, inclucdes two new recordings of songs by Farrell and features Farrell on several tracks. Leo Kottke: Burnt Lips, 1978; Essential Leo Kottke, 1991; The Leo Kottke Anthology, 1997. Kottke performs the song solo on guitar, apparently tuned to open G and using a mix of fingerpicking and slide work. Robert Earl Keen: 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-position Tom Russell: Cowboy Real, 1991. 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." Michael Martin Murphey, Cowboy Songs III:Rhymes of The Renegades, 1993. (See comments above in introduction.) Richard Shindell, The Sonora Sessions (a live bonus EP offered with Courier), 2002. Shindell performs a version on guitar