On the way home from work, my other brother called me and asked me if I’d heard this song about a guy who is hanged and there’s a murder and the man who ran looked a lot like him and the girl cries all over his bones. He said, “It’s some traditional song.”
I said, “No it’s not! It’s one of my favorite country music songs ever!”
And he said he was going to learn to play it.
He called me right now and we looked the song up on Amazon.com and I played a bunch of 30 second snippets of different people’s versions so that he could hear it.
And I said, “Do you want to hear Bill Monroe’s version?”
And he was all, “Betsy, come on. You know I can’t sing that high.”
But what the fuck, people? I have never heard my brother sing.
But you know what?
I just might, now.
Tiny Cat Pants 
And I think I’m smitten with the Butcher. :)
Okay, I just have to say, I would be tickled if you and the Squirrel Queen each took up with one of my brothers. It would be weird as hell, but it would be awesome!
When Roseanne Cash was a teenager her father gave her a list of what he decided was 100 essential country songs and told her to learn them. It’s a sweet story, and she has decided to record some of them into an album coming out next month. Long Black Veil is one of the songs and she does it with Jeff Tweedy from Wilco – really looking forward to hearing that version of it.
http://rosannecash.com/thelist/
Oh holy cow! I cannot wait to hear that!
I like The Chieftains version, with Mick Jagger as the singer, from their album of the same name (“The Long Black Veil”).
If you find that album, make sure to also listen to Sinead O’Connor doing “The Foggy Dew”. It’s amazing.
Indifferent Children is so right. That version, and that whole Chieftains’ album, is brilliant.
I also like the version of “Long Black Veil” by the Proclaimers, the Scotsmen who sang “I Would Walk 500 Miles”. And they do a mean version of “King of the Road”.
I agree, the Chieftains version is great. The entire album, including “Tennessee Waltz,” is great.
Aren’t y’all the ones who talked me into getting the Chieftains version before? Anyway, I have it and it’s awesome.
A lot of people heard it from Joan Baez, too. But for my money, the best versions are Lefty Frizzell’s original, and the version on the BIg Pink album from The Band.