Damn, this is a sad story! What’s even sadder is that it was told countless times by every Southern migrant who left the poverty of Appalachia for a lonely, punch-the-clock existence in the industrial Midwest.

Some, like Bill Monroe and The Osborne Brothers, found musical success – or the stepping stones to it – up there. Others, like the man in this song, found only broken dreams.

Here’s Lester Flatt, with the inimitable Josh Graves on dobro, telling the timeless tale of hard luck in “Detroit City”.