Johnny Cash karaoke - Sam Hall

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Hall_(song)

"Sam Hall" (Roud 369) is an English folk song about an unrepentant criminal condemned to death for robbing the rich to feed the poor. Prior to the mid-19th century it was called "Jack Hall", after Jack Hall, a thief who was hanged at Tyburn in 1707. Jack Hall's parents sold him as a climbing boy for one guinea, which is why most versions of the song identify Sam or Jack Hall as a chimney sweep.

A distinct American version of the song, with the opening line "My name it is Sam Hall, it is Sam Hall" (or "Samuel Hall"), where the character is about to be hanged for murder, and various other often rude modifications, developed and became widely popular among cowboys in the American West, including in the Oklahoma range. This was fairly typical of cowboy songs, which were often adapted from traditional English ballads. The earliest known publication of this version of the song is found in Max Brand's novel Trailin'! (1919). It was collected by Hubert L. Canfield (1920s), Harold Scott (1926), Mellinger E. Henry (1931), and John and Alan Lomax (1934).

American Country music singer Tex Ritter adapted the song,[13] and recorded it as a single in 1935. He sang it again in the film The Old Corral / Song of the Gringo (1936), and recorded a version for his 1960 album Blood on the Saddle. It was also recorded by many other artists. Oscar Brand performed the song on Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads volume 1 (1955). In concert, e.g. Le Hibou Coffee House, Ottawa, 1966, Brand used the following lyric: "... My name is Samuel Hall and I hate you one and all, You're a bunch of fuckers all, Goddamn your eyes, Son of a bitch, Shit." If a young person came into the club, Brand would edit this for comic effect to "... Gall darn his eyes, Son of a gun, Shucks." Josh White recorded a version of the song, included on The Story Of John Henry (1955). Carl Sandburg, poet and Abraham Lincoln biographer, recorded it twice, once in 1964, as "Sam Hall" and later as "Gallows Song".

Johnny Cash recorded a version of this song on Ballads of the True West (1965), re-recording it for American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002). The band Flogging Molly used the Johnny Cash version as an intro for their concerts. Ed Kuepper covered this song on his album The Exotic Mail Order Moods of Ed Kuepper (1995). The self-professed "steamcrunk" band Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys performed a version of this song on their album Steamship Killers (2010).

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