“The Long Black Veil”, The Unissued Answer to it and the Possible Backstory

Most of us classic country music fans are familiar with Lefty Frizzell singing “The Long Black Veil”. He was the first one to recorded it. He had been in a career drought and this song, so unlike his usual honky-tonk style, reached the sixth spot on Billboard Hot C & W Sides chart. It was his best song in five years! It opens with:

“Ten years ago, on a cold dark night 
There was someone killed 'neath the town hall light....”

Just writing those two lines I can hear Frizzell's rich voice in my head. 

In 1959 Danny Dill presented to fellow songwriter Marijohn Wilkin a poem he wrote. She fine tuned it. The story behind Dill's inclination to write it is that he took inspiration from Red Foley's “God Walks These Hills”, a news story regarding the unsolved murder of a priest who was actually killed beneath a town light in front of witnesses and, lastly, the legendary veiled woman in black who regularly visited the grave of silent movie star, and one of Hollywood's first heartthrobs, Rudolph Valentino. Drawing from those sources Dill and Wilkin created a dark ballad about a man falsely accused of murder who refuses to give an alibi. The woman, who he was with that night, was the wife of the man's best friend. The man was willing to go to his death in order to protect his and the woman's secret as well as her reputation in addition to saving his best friend from the heartache of a double betrayal. 

One day piddling around on YouTube I discovered that Marijohn Wilkin wrote and recorded, in 1959 or 1960, the answer to “The Long Black Veil” entitled “My Long Black Veil”. The recording was never issued on an album or just as a single for radio airplay. I reckon whoever uploaded it at YouTube probably has a demo. In this song the woman gives her side of the story. The first two lines of the first verse mirror the first two lines of “The Long Black Veil” and continues thus:

“...The few at the scene were wrong as could be

Because the man they accused that night was with me...”

In the second verse, as if Wilkin could hear the people wondering why the man didn't give an alibi, she wrote:

“But what could he do? And what could he say?

For that one stolen night he just had to pay.

He couldn't tell a soul that I was out with him

For the whole town knew I belonged to his best friend.”

On my 'Ballads' playlist at YouTube the song follows “The Long Black Veil”, as it should.

Following Wilkins answer to hers and Dills song is what I think of as the accidental backstory. The song, written and recorded by Texas country singer-songwriter Jason Boland is called “False Accusers Lament”. He didn't set out to write a backstory to “The Long Black Veil”, it just happened. He was almost through with it when it dawned on him it could be the backstory to “The Long Black Veil”. The first time I heard this song I thought of “The Long Black Veil”. In Boland's ballad the narrative is from a witness who confesses to lying and tells why he lied and therefore partook in the condemnation of an innocent man who was hung. Several years ago Boland said, on the YouTube online show 'The Texas Music Scene TV', that he never agreed with how things went down in “The Long Black Veil” yet he recognized it as a great song. Boland said “...now let me get this right. He's dead and the best, the best friend doesn't know about it, what happened, and she walks in a long black, you know I just, I needed something else in my story. I went ahead and gave it how I see the world working a lot of times which is I know somebody knew and they wanted it to go this way and they set it up and everybody else was just pawns in it.” The song begins thus:

“I said I'd seen the killin',

could identify the villain

who shot a man beneath the town hall globe

I was one of few

The jury never knew

About to line our pockets

With the bankers jealous gold...”

As for the bankers wife:

“He said his lovin' woman sinned

Let alone with a friend,

He couldn't have his childrens mother shamed...”

This false witness, in the chorus, speaks of “nightly terror”, hearing the guilty gavel and seeing the condemned mans body swinging, concluding in that chorus “They had me swear upon the Bible and I lied.”

Boland's very likely backstory to the "Long Black Veil" is on his and his bands, The Stragglers, 'Rancho Alto' album which was released in October 2011. The first two songs above were wrote in 1959. From then to 2011 is 52 years. So you could say it took a really long time to get the backstory, the confession of a false witness. I'm going to line them up here as I have them on my 'Ballads' playlist. Let me know in the comments below what you think about all this.

Since it's impossible to find any information online about "My Long Black Veil", including lyrics, I obtained the latter playing the song on YouTube, stopping and starting until I had the words. Thankfully, Wilkin sang in a clear, understandable voice.

Lefty Frizzell sings "The Long Black Veil"

Marijohn Wilkin sings "My Long Black Veil"

Jason Boland, w/ The Stragglers,

 sings "False Accusers Lament".

My sources:

"The Long Black Veil" (Wikipedia)

Lefty Frizzell & "The Long Black Veil"

"The Long Black Veil" & Lefty Frizzell

Lyrics: "False Accusers Lament"

Texas Country

Texas country is as unique as the state whose name it bears. Considered another genre of country music it is frequently associated with Oklahoma's Red Dirt music and Tejano music. Texas country is noted for blending neotraditional country with the outspoken, devil-may-care attitude and views of outlaw country. This blend results in a theme that celebrates the common working man and an undercurrent of mirth.

Texas country, truth be told, has been around for quite a long time, longer than you would think if you thought about it for a spell. Western music in the form of cowboy and trail songs has been been popular in Texas since the cowboy days of the 1800s. On cattle drives it was the lullabies that soothed the herd at night, especially if coyotes or wolves were making their presence known or a storm threatened. It was the songs sung around campfires, in bunkhouses, on front porches and even in saloons and brothels. A guitar, perhaps even the harmonica, was as common as lassos and saddles. As decades drifted passed the music evolved as other forms of music began having an influence on it: blues, Southern Gospel music, African-American Spirituals, American folk music such as what was sung in Appalachia, by the Cajuns and Creoles of Louisiana, and, from through out the land, Americans of the working class. Some of the music told stories in the form of ballads. Some of the music enticed folks to get up and dance. The songs would also make you laugh and make you cry. With a song a singer could share their joys, their heartaches, express their political views and protest what they opposed. The musical sound would come from a variety of instruments such as the guitar, banjo, steel guitar, mandolin, fiddle, dobro, and the harmonica.

The term 'country and western music', eventually shortened to just 'country music', replaced the derogatory term 'hillbilly music' in 1949 as country music was gaining in popularity. The term 'country music' is an umbrella under which are many subgenre's such as Western Swing, hillbilly boogie, bluegrass, honky-tonk, the Nashville sound, the Bakersfield sound, outlaw country, truck driving country, and that which has found its way out front leaving it's siblings in the dance floor sawdust and turning country music as we love it inside out, country pop, a. k. a. pop country. I think 'country crap', or 'crap country', are either more appropriate terms as crap is what has been flushed out of Nashville for many years now. Texas country rejects the pop influence that for many years up to the present has poisoned country music, killing off the beloved twang of the honky-tonk sound and silencing fiddles and steel guitars.

Yet, despite pop kidnapping and darn near killing it, traditional country music with it's honky-tonk twang, devil-may-care outlaw attitude, whining fiddles and crying steel guitars is not dead. Not by a long shot. That is thanks to the Red Dirt and Texas country movement. The difference between the two had been quite discernible at one time. On one hand is the unique sound of Texas country, a style long affiliated with another country music sub-genre, outlaw country, whose two most notable artists are the late Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. On the other hand is Oklahoma singer-songwriter Bob Childers (a.k.a. “Dylan of the dust”) who is considered the Father of Oklahoma Red Dirt music. The distinction between the two has shrunk over time to the point the terms 'Texas Country' and 'Red Dirt' tend to be used interchangeably.

Muckrakers dare say Red Dirt is comparable to the indie genre of rock 'n' roll because they don't hear a definitive sound that would link all the bands in the movement. It's ridiculous that most of these artists would be labeled as Americana or folk because the scope of sounds on the Red Dirt spectrum goes well beyond these genres. Rather it is more of a mix of folk, rock, country, bluegrass, blues, Western swing, honky-tonk and a dash of Mexican.

Nashville is not the be all to end all it once was. Likely, it's been that way a long while but just not as noticeable as it's been for many years now. Nashville has been turned into a money loving corporate crapper. Long before Willie, Waylon, and friends absconded from Nashville and headed to Texas to do their music their way, there was a group of artists who chose not to go to Nashville. For instance, artists such as Wynn Stewart, Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, Merle Haggard and the Strangers, The Maddox Brothers and (sister) Rose, Red Simpson, Freddie Hart, Susan Raye, Jean Shepard and Bonnie Owens made their musical marks in Bakersfield, California proving that it wasn't necessary to high-tail it to Nashville to become a country singer. Their style of country music is called the Bakersfield sound. While being a native Texan is absolutely a great thing to be it's not a requirement for one to be a Texas country artist. For example, Jason Boland and the Stragglers, Gary P. Nunn, Turnpike Troubadours and Ray Wylie Hubbard hail from Oklahoma, the late Jerry Jeff Walker and late Hal Ketchum hailed from New York, Josh Abbott hails from North Carolina, Ray Benson from Asleep at the Wheel hails from Pennsylvania, Jason Eady hails from Mississippi and Dale Watson hails from Alabama. Some families moved to Texas for whatever reason and so the artist was raised here. Others relocated to Texas to get started or after forming their groups.

Texas has a plethora of native born musical treasures. Some moved away as children like Buck Owens and Kris Kristofferson. Some high-tailed it to Nashville because back in the day that was the thing to do. Keep in mind older artists such as Willie Nelson, the late Waylon Jennings, the late Goldie Hill Smith, the late Ray Price and others of their generation, some before and some after, did just that. Some, therefore, may have hit Nashville first but eventually came home to Texas where they could do their music their way. Please don't come down on me for leaving someone out. It is impossible to mention everyone; however, I intend to do a more inclusive list at a later date and will cover country and all its sub-genres, whether they went to Nashville, whether they came home or not to do country their own way. Here's a small handful of our native Texas country treasures, singers and songwriters alike. I start with the ladies who sadly and unfairly get short shrift from the industry (a + denotes one who has passed on):

Bri Bagwell, +Nancy Griffith, Miranda Lambert, Sunny Sweeney, Jamie Lin Wilson

+Johnny Bush, Mark Chesnutt, Roger Creager, Kevin Fowler, +Waylon Jennings, Cody Jinks, Cody Johnson, Willie Nelson, +Billy Joe Shaver, George Strait, Aaron Watson, Zane Williams

Remember, keep country as it should be kept- traditional!

Say NO to pop!

Revised 9/25/22 tkp