Kinky Friedman, ‘Girl From the North Country’ [Exclusive Premiere]

For the first time in 39 years, Texas musician and outlaw singer Kinky Friedman is releasing an album of newly recorded songs, and he's letting readers of The Boot get the first listen to one of those tunes: a Bob Dylan cover, "Girl From the North Country."

"Girl From the North Country" was originally the second track on Dylan's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, which was released in 1963. The music legend recorded it as a duet with Johnny Cash six years later, and now, Friedman provides his own take on the tune.

“[This is] a special song for me, because I have a girl from the North Country I lost touch with when I went to Borneo with the Peace Corps," Friedman says. "Sometimes the ones you let slip through your fingers are the ones you always keep."

With the knowledge that the song rings true in Friedman's own life, his cover becomes even more sentimental.

"Well, if you’re travelin’ in the North Country fair / Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline," Friedman sings, "Remember me to one who lives there / She once was a true love of mine."

Friedman, who has penned some of outlaw country’s most outrageous songs, will release his new record, The Loneliest Man I Ever Met, on Oct. 2 via Avenue A Records / Thirty Tigers. The record holds 12 tracks, including a song with Willie Nelson and his sister, Bobbie Nelson; Tom Waits' “A Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis;” and Merle Haggard’s “Mama’s Hungry Eyes," among others.

"What I’ve tried to do is interpret some of these songs," Friedman explains. "But it’s not like Tony Bennett sings Willie Nelson; it’s more spiritually halfway between those people and me. So if you’re not a little bit melancholy, maybe you should be.

"... These songs were never intended to be used as background music at a frat party; instead, they are very personal, as if chosen to be played for a dead sweetheart, a lost cat, a silent witness," he continues. "In selecting these particular songs, it sometimes felt like I was wandering in the raw poetry of time. But the Jersey Boys kept things on track, and the words and music came together ..."

Friedman will tour in support of the album; after an album release party on Oct. 2, the tour will begin on Oct. 9 in Ashland, Va. Upcoming show dates are available on KinkyFriedman.com.

Listen to Kinky Friedman, "Girl From the North Country":