The first time I heard “Deportee” was from The Highwaymen — Waylon, Willie, Cash, and Kristofferson harmonizing like the wind itself carried that Guthrie sorrow. Woody wrote it in 1948 after a plane crash near Los Gatos Canyon, where Mexican farm workers were dismissed in death the same way they were in life — called “deportees” instead of names.
Now, Ryan Bingham and Joe Ely have brought it back, and man… this version hurts right. You can hear every mile of border dust in Bingham’s voice, every torn heartland page in Ely’s. No polish, no pretense — just two Texas souls giving breath to Guthrie’s ghosts.
This isn’t nostalgia; it’s resurrection. A reminder that some songs ain’t meant to fade, because the truth they carry still rides shotgun in this country.
Some songs grow old. Deportee just keeps growing roots.
Pancho.