The Forest Rangers previously offered up a fiery take on Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" – but with their latest Dylan cover tune, 1964's "Boots of Spanish Leather," the Sons of Anarchy house band employs a hazier, more restrained approach. The recording (featured during Tuesday's night's episode, "Faith and Despondency") is led by a stirring vocal from singer-songwriter Amos Lee, who draws out a sense of emotional turmoil from the lovesick lyrics.
"No, there’s nothin’ you can send me, my own true love/There's nothin’ I wish to be ownin'," Lee sings over tumbleweed steel-guitar and muted drum fills. "Just carry yourself back to me unspoiled / From across that lonesome ocean."
"Amos Lee and the Forest Rangers give us an incredibly powerful and penetrating version of Bob Dylan's song of tortured love sung by Amos Lee," Sons of Anarchy music supervisor Bob Thiele. "Jax's pain is palpable. Tara is gone. Forever. And Amos' beautiful voice tells the sad tale of lovers who will never meet again. Greg Leisz's pedal steel guitar helps tell this story. And Forest Rangers Phil Shenale, Davey Faragher and Matt Chamberlain supply a stoic restraint that helps create this world of sorrow. Having Amos Lee convey this emotion is yet one more musical highlight for the Forest Rangers."
"There's a pervading melancholy coursing through this montage," Thiele says, teasing the darkness on the horizon. "We're heading towards something that is more likely the end than the beginning."
