When I was younger, I lived for about a year in New Mexico – for a few months playing at the La Fonda hotel – a very old establishment in the heart of Santa Fe. I loved the experience – being in the high desert, surrounded by the Sangre de Cristo mountains, steeped in the cultural tradition of the old West.
Fast forward twenty years and I was living in a town outside Nashville. The concept of “Outlaw Heart” came to me in a daydream – imagining the setting back in New Mexico – the tumbleweed, the crumbling adobe house, the vast expanse of land, and a fiery showdown between a drifter and a passionate young woman. I was introduced to Jack Hargrove – a brilliant Nashville writer – who helped me to complete the song. It is a story, but it is also a paean to New Mexico.
© Robin Munson