There is no doubt that country was Pat's favorite musical genre, and while he enjoyed newer releases, classic country was his first choice. As an aside, I do understand that lots of people wouldn't consider 1983 'classic' country, but I don't care: there's only a couple of older country songs that hold a strong association with my dad for me, and the theme for 'Rawhide' didn't seem to belong in this collection. Additionally, 'Pancho and Lefty' is styled as a true classic country song. And it's Willie. So live with it.

In thinking over this song during the previous months, I've come to associate Pancho with Pat, which isn't to say that Pancho Villa the historical figure bears much similarity to Pat. (Though he is remembered as a hero, his story is by no means clean.) It's something of a wide view of the song, but I look at it as a sort of 'Road Less Travelled' story: two people start off the same, but make opposite life choices. On the one hand, a man chooses to be utterly honest with himself and the world, but receives a short, brutish life in return. The other man maintains a more secretive self and lives long but, in the end, suffers more. I would like to think Pat True 'wore his gun outside his pants/For all the honest world to feel.'

Pop enjoyed any Willie Nelson song, I learned early, but I suspect he enjoyed this one especially. He played this tape often (until he let me steal it) and it was for this song that I first heard Pat do that warm up singing thing he often did. Some of you may remember it: a few measures before the actual singer began, he would sing only the first line of the song. I always liked that.