Red River Shore: Persecution in the Night

Jimmy LaFave has been a faithful and sometimes inspired interpreter of Bob Dylan for many years. Recently, on his album Depending On The Distance, he became the first significant artist to cover the Time Out of Mind outtake "Red River Shore", which Dylan finally released on Tell Tale Signs. I don't think LaFave quite matches the mystery of Dylan's version, which reminds me of the classic border town film noir Ride the Pink Horse. But his vocal does have an undeniable force. Check it out.

The guy I'd really like to hear cover this is Tom Russell. Tom lives on the El Paso - Juarez boarder, and his best songs have the same sort of dark mystery that Dylan gets at here. He was born to sing this song--if you see him, tell him to get with the program.

And below, just for fun, are some posters of Ride the Pink Horse. The title in Spanish seems to translate to Persecution in the Night--or as Dylan wrote and LaFave sings, "Some of us scare ourselves to death in the dark / To see where the angels fly."