Introduction
Willie Nelson’s recording of “A Horse Called Music,” featuring the late Merle Haggard, is a powerful and deeply evocative ballad that serves as a poignant metaphor for a rambling life dedicated to song. The track, originally the title song of Nelson’s 1989 album, was revisited and rerecorded for his 2012 Heroes album, cementing its place as an outlaw country elegy.
The lyrics, written by Wayne Carson, paint a vivid Western scene: an old cowboy riding alone on a majestic steed named Music across a vast, cinnamon-colored sky. This “horse called Music” represents the cowboy’s career and passion, a constant companion that carried him through a life on the road “from Boston to Bozeman.” The song contrasts the romantic freedom of the past—when the horse “could jump through the moon and fly across the sky”—with the present loneliness of the aging rider, who is left with only his memories.
The duet with Merle Haggard is an exquisite collaboration between two legends who lived the very life the song describes. Haggard’s robust, steady vocal provides a grounding counterpart to Nelson’s softer, more wistful delivery, making the song feel like a conversation between two old friends reflecting on their parallel journeys. The ultimate tragedy of the song is its ending, where the two crosses mark the spot “where a horse he called Music / Lays with a cowboy in the sweet by-and-by,” suggesting that the man and his art are inseparable in death. This recording is a magnificent tribute to the hard-won, often solitary life of the troubadour.