I was running some errands this morning, with my iPod on shuffle, and after I dropped off my dry cleaning (this is my exciting life), I heard Guy Clark's "Desperados Waiting For The Train," from his 1975 album "Old No. 1." I remember buying the RCA LP based on nothing but its cover, the names of some of the musicians and singers (Larrie London, Chip Young, Johnny Gimble, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris), and Jerry Jeff Walker's liner notes. The album is one of my favorites; it sounded instantly classic to me, with songs that felt lived-in and wise, and although it has a batch of first-rate tracks ("Texas-1947," "L.A. Freeway," "Like A Coat from the Cold"), its standout is "Desperados Waiting For The Train." It's sentimental in a "Mr. Bojangles" kind of way, but written with emotional precision (Clark says he wrote it about his grandmother's boyfriend, and everything about it sounds vivid and true)."From the time that I could walk he'd take me with himTo a bar called the Green Frog CafeAnd there was old men with beer guts and dominosLyin' 'bout their lives while they'd play"It's a seductive song for people to cover. There's a pretty well-known version by The Highwaymen (you don't even have to hear it to know how Willie, Waylon, Johnny and Kris would phrase some of those beautiful lines), but somehow, until just a few moments ago, this performance had passed me by. Nanci Griffith and some friends recorded it for one of her covers albums, and recreated the version on the Letterman show. Guy Clark is front and center, fittingly, but verses are also taken by Nanci, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Eric Taylor. I can't imagine anyone not being touched by this, but maybe I'm just a complete sucker for some of the best singer-songwriters on earth taking turns on one of the best singer-songwriter songs ever.