The Texan outlaw country singer-songwriter Blaze Foley lived a chaotic life and didn’t get around to releasing much music while he still walked the mortal plane. The 39-year-old Foley was shot to death in 1989, and he’s achieved cult-favorite status since his passing. Merle Haggard and John Prine covered his songs. Lucinda Williams wrote “Drunken Angel” about him. Ethan Hawke directed a movie about his life. And now Why Bonnie has shared her version of Foley’s song “Rainbows And Ridges.”

Blair Howerton’s indie-folk project Why Bonnie released the album Wish On The Bone earlier this year, and she recorded her take on “Rainbows And Ridges” during those sessions. (Whitney covered the same song on Candid, the all-covers album that they released in 2020.) Howerton says, “This is a cover of one of my favorite songs. It highlights the duality of life — all of the beauty and all of the pain.”

The original “Rainbows And Ridges,” taken from Blaze Foley’s posthumous live album Oval Room, is a spare and haunted acoustic number. Why Bonnie’s cover is fuller and more languid, and there’s a very cool moment where the whole band comes in behind Blair Hawerton. Listen to the Why Bonnie cover and the Blaze Foley original below.

Wish On The Bone is out now on Fire Talk.