Poncho and Lefty Strumming Pattern

Bill requests that I learn this song. He claims (today) that it is the absolute best song cowboy song every written. (He claims he'll do the vocals if I learn to play it, we'll see about that). (He sure likes to sing it LOUD and with plenty of enthusiasm) ... Here's Willy Nelson and Bob Dylan

and EmmyLou Harris

I've got the chords figured out and can strum, but would like to learn to replicate this teacher's fingerpicking. He uses his thumb and fingers 1 and 2, but the quick pattern that goes too fast for me to see what he's doing, but looks like a standard pattern worth learning.

PANCHO AND LEFTY (written by Townes Van Zandt)
sung by EmmyLou Harris, Capo=5^th fret

G                            D

Living on the road my friend, is gonna keep you free and clean

C

Now you wear your skin like iron,

     G                 D

Your breath as hard as kerosene.

C                                         G               C

You weren't your mama's only boy, but her favorite one it seems

G                         C    G    D

She began to cry when you said goodbye,

    C              Em     Em D G

And sank into your dreams.

G                       D

Pancho was a bandit boys, his horse was fast as polished steel

C

He wore his gun outside his pants

    G                       D

For all the honest world to feel.

C                                    G               C

Pancho met his match you know on the deserts down in Mexico

G                C  G  D             C                 Em   Em D C

Nobody heard his dying words, ah but that's the way it goes.

Chorus

C                    G                        C

All the Federales say they could have had him any day         

G                 C    G  D        C              Em

They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose.

Em D G

G                              D

Lefty, he can't sing the blues all night long like he used to.

C                                   G           D

The dust that Pancho bit down south ended up in Lefty's mouth

C                                  G               C

The day they laid poor Pancho low, Lefty split for Ohio

G                C     G   D        C            Em

Where he got the bread to go, there ain't nobody knows

Em D C

Chorus

G                                  D

Poets tell how Pancho fell, and Lefty's living in a cheap hotel

C

The desert's quiet and Cleveland's cold,

G                D

And so the story ends we're told

C                                        G              C

Pancho needs your prayers it's true, but save a few for Lefty too

G                   C   G  D       C                Em

He only did what he had to do, and now he's growing old

Em D C

Chorus

Em D C

Alternate Chorus

C                        G                       C

A few gray Federales say they could have had him any day

G                  C  G  D              C            Em

They only let him go so long, out of of kindness, I suppose.