Western Song: Last Cowboy Song
The Last Cowboy Song is originally written and performed by the duet Ed Bruce and Ron Peterson. It also appeared on the first studio album released by country supergroup The Highwaymen, including Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. Members of the Western Writers of America chose Last Cowboy Song in their list of the Top 100 Western Songs of all time.
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About the Song
When Ed Bruce signed to with MCA records in 1980, this is when he found the success he’d been seeking, ever since early 1960. Inclining heavy into the cowboy motif, the duet of Ed with Willie Nelson of the song gained the best success of his career in 1980. Then in 1981, Bruce got his first #1 song in “You’re The Best Break This Old Heart Ever Had.”
The Highwaymen’s cover of the song rings the truest and the saddest of the few songs about losing pieces of America’s past. The stories inside of the lyrics are the best parts of this song which tell of Lewis and Clark, the cowboy legend Bill Wyatt, Travis in Texas, and General Custer.
The Highwaymen’s arrangement of the original song of Bruce echoes clearly what thousands of people presumably feel. That is when Willie Nelson sings, “And wish to God we could have ridden his trail.” The thought of remembering cowboy culture is alive and well in the United States, even if this Highwaymen tune is “the last cowboy song: the end of a hundred-year waltz.”
Popular Recordings
Some of the popular covers of the song are recorded by:
- Ed Bruce
- Tommy Dell
- Waylon and Willie
- The Highwaymen
- Union of Sound
Last Cowboy Song In Albums
The song has also been released in the tracklist of the albums below:
- Ed Bruce
- Tommy Dell – Words And Music
- Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson – WW II
- Waylon Jennings • Willie Nelson • Johnny Cash • Kris Kristofferson – Highwayman
- Immortal Country Anthems by Union of Sound
Listen (Ed Bruce & Willie Nelson Version)
Last Cowboy Song Lyrics
This is the last cowboy song The end of a hundred year waltz Voices sound sad as they're singing along Another piece of America's lost He rides a feed lot and clerks in a market On weekends selling tobacco and beer His dreams of tomorrow surrounded by fences But he'll dream tonight of when fences weren't here He blazed the trail with Lewis and Clark And eyeball to eyeball Ol' Wyatt backed down He stood shoulder to shoulder with Travis in Texas And rode with the Seventh when Custer went down This is the last cowboy song The end of a hundred year Waltz The voices sound sad as they're singin' along Another piece of America's lost Remington showed us how he looked on canvas And Louie L'Amore has told us his tale And Willie and Waylon and me sing about him And wish to God we could have ridden his trail The Old Chisholm Trail is covered in concrete now And they truck 'em to market in fifty foot rigs They blow by his market never slowing to reason Like living and dying was all he did This is the last cowboy song The end of a hundred year Waltz The voices sound sad as they're singin' along Another piece of America's lost This is the last cowboy song The end of a hundred year Waltz The voices sound sad as they're singin' along Another piece of America's lost This is the last cowboy song The end of a hundred year Waltz
