NEW SINGLE: Pancho and Lefty by Exit 380

Vinyl Release at House of Blues Dallas (8/8) with Jessie Frye and Andrew Tinker

ABOUT PANCHO AND LEFTY: “Pancho and Lefty” is a song written by country singer and songwriter Townes Van Zandt. Often considered his “most enduring and well-known song.”

Wikipedia: “Pancho and Lefty”

The song tells the story of a Mexican bandit named Pancho and a more enigmatic character, Lefty. The song tells of Pancho’s death and implies that he was betrayed by his associate Lefty who was paid off by the Mexican federales.

Although the lyrics are not exactly reconcilable with the historic details of the life and death of the famous Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, Van Zandt does not rule out the idea. In an interview, he recalled, “I realize that I wrote it, but it’s hard to take credit for the writing, because it came from out of the blue. It came through me and it’s a real nice song, and I think, I’ve finally found out what it’s about. I’ve always wondered what it’s about. I kinda always knew it wasn’t about Pancho Villa, and then somebody told me that Pancho Villa had a buddy whose name in Spanish meant ‘Lefty.’ But in the song, my song, Pancho gets hung. ‘They only let him hangaround out of kindness I suppose’ and the real Pancho Villa was assassinated.”

In the same interview, Van Zandt recalled, “We got stopped by these two policeman and…they said ‘What do you do for a living?’, and I said, ‘Well, I’m a songwriter’, and they both kind of looked around like ‘pitiful, pitiful’, and so on to that I added, ‘I wrote that song Pancho and Lefty. You ever heard that song Pancho and Lefty? I wrote that’, and they looked back around and they looked at each other and started grinning, and it turns out that their squad car, you know their partnership, it was two guys, it was an Anglo and a Hispanic, and it turns out, they’re called Pancho and Lefty..so I think maybe that’s what it’s about, those two guys… I hope I never see them again”

ABOUT PHOTOMAPS: Produced at three different studios over the course of two years, the completion of Exit 380’s sixth full length record, Photomaps, started to become questionable as the band changed drummers and band mate’s personal schedules began to affect both the writing and vision of the project. However, in the winter of 2013 Exit 380 refocused on completing the material upon news they would be recording with fellow Hand Drawn artist, producer, Andrew Tinker at his studio, Big Acre Sound.

Photomaps track listing is held to a tight nine songs, clocking it at less than 34 minutes. But it’s not just focus here at work that makes Photomaps so exciting, yet, it’s the unique nature of the material which marries the band’s long history of energetic live performance with their predilection for engaging lyrical storytelling.

The full length album will be released digitally on July 12th (iTunes, Bandcamp, Amazon, et al.) and in a limited edition vinyl package on August 8th; which includes 12″ LP, supplemental compact disc and digital download card.