Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs

Driving 5000 miles across really barren country gives one a lot of time to listen to music. We devoured a historical book on Custer and listened to a number of This American Life podcasts, but the music we listened gave us some fuel for the fire. The title of Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs perfectly describes the Adventure Buddy crew’s adventures. Not that we’re gunfighters (although Lu has her moments), but there’s something about our desperado aesthetic that shouts “gunfighter”—don’t you think?—and it’s always good to have trail songs for all the trails we do. I grew up listening to the Grateful Dead’s version of “El Paso,” but it’s nice to have Marty Robbins’ original, an epic tale of romance with a Mexican maiden and a gun duel. Throughout these entries, I will intersperse commentaries on the tunes that entertained us on our way through the West.