Streets of New Reno

Fallout: New Vegas song
Streets of New Reno
Genre	Ballad
Length	2:19
Released	2010
Credits
Artist	The Lonesome Drifter (Joshua Sawyer) Nathaniel Chapman
Written by	Joshua Sawyer
Produced by	Bethesda Softworks

"Streets of New Reno" is a song sung by The Lonesome Drifter in the Aces Theater at The Tops casino. He must first be recruited for the theater; see the quest Talent Pool for more information.

Lyrics

As I walked out in the streets of New Reno
As I walked out in New Reno one day
I spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen
Wrapped in white linen and cold as the clay

"Oh, beat the drums slowly and play the fife lowly
Play the dead march as you bear me along
Take me to the valley and lay the sod o'er me
I'm a young cowboy; I know I've done wrong"

"I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy"
These words he did say as I slowly walked by
"Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story
I'm shot in the chest and today I must die"

"Go bring me a cup, a cup of cold water
to cool my parched lips," the cowboy then said
Before I returned his soul had departed
and gone to the roundup; the cowboy was dead

"Oh, beat the drums slowly and play the fife lowly
Play the dead march as you bear me along
Take me to the valley and lay the sod o'er me
For I'm a young cowboy; I know I've done wrong"

Notes

• The song is set to the tune of, and shares lyrics with, the traditional ballad "Streets of Laredo."
• In the credits, it is listed as one of the songs on Radio New Vegas but in fact it is not played on any radio station.
• The song is adapted and performed by J.E. Sawyer, the lead designer and project director of Fallout: New Vegas. The guitar segments for the song were performed by Nathaniel Chapman and James Melilli.
  Sawyer later elaborated further on the song itself:

“There's not much of a backstory to Streets of New Reno. We needed a small number of songs for the performers at the Tops after Talent Pool was completed but we hadn't actually decided on/licensed anything. We realized this fairly late on the project and didn't have many options, so I suggested writing variants of folk songs to be performed with James Melilli and Nathaniel Chapman on guitar. That's what we would [end] up doing, later adding a variant of Cobwebs and Rainbows to a low-cost instrumental track we found somewhere.

It should be noted that The Streets of Laredo dates back far before Marty Robbins. Like many great country songs, it's part of an American folk tradition that stretches into the 19th century, often borrowing from English, Scottish, and Irish songs.

The Unfortunate Rake, which was the basis for Streets of Laredo, also morphed into St. James Infirmary Blues (Arcade Gannon’s theme song in the Black Isle tabletop campaign).”— Joshua Sawyer's tumblr

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