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"Sonora’s Death Row" is a story song written by California songwriter Kevin "Blackie" Farrell and published by Drifter Music/Bug Music (BMI), ''©''1975.〔''Sing Out!'', Vol. 39 #4, p. 86, Spring 1995 (see (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). Publication, however, is now administered by (Bug Music ).〕 Recorded covers of the song have been performed by Robert Earl Keen, Leo Kottke, Michael Martin Murphey, Tom Russell, Richard Shindell, Dave Alvin, Johnny Rodriguez and others. The song was also printed in the 1995 Spring issue of ''Sing Out!'' with the following introduction: ''Legendary Texas Ranger and Arizona Border Guard Jeff Milton once described Sonora as a hell and a paradise, Michael Martin Murphy tells us. Blackie Farrell's classic Old West ballad, Murphy says, "captures the dangers implicit in cowboys on a tequila spree."''〔 == Storyline == A plot develops over the song's six verses (the song has no chorus). The song tells the story of a cowboy who rides into the (Sonora is an actual Mexican State) Mexican town of Sonora with his partners from the "Broken 'O'" ranch on a Saturday night. After considerable drinking and gambling in "Amanda’s Saloon" he imagines himself being robbed by his friends. His dream becomes a nightmare when in a drunken rage he shoots and kills one of his friends. He soon finds himself contemplating his situation as he awaits his execution. 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 by the narrator: :''A nightmare of mezcal was all that it was :''No one had robbed me at all :''I wish I was dreamin' the sound of the gallows :''They're testin' just outside the wall :''And the mezcal's still free in Amanda's saloon :''For the boys from the old Broken "O" :''I'd pay a ransom to drink there today :''An' be free of Sonora's Death Row :''Yeah I'd pay a ransom to drink there today :''An' be free of Sonora's Death Row〔 Although the time period is not made clear in the song, a reference to a Winchester rifle 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 is actually a Mexican State that accounts for a long stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S. states of Arizona and New Mexico. 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 from (realcountrymusic.org )), story about Kevin Farrell by Brooke Bryant, originally published in the ''Contra Costa Times'', January, 2006, and accessed June 8, 2006 (here ).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sonora's Death Row」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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