"Country Music is Three Chords and the Truth"
Harlan Howard
"Busted"
Johnny Cash
If it's not a big enough deal to have your song recorded by Johnny Cash, this song was recorded by both Cash and Ray Charles. The lyrics tell the story of a poor farmer who struggles to support his family, and eventually decides to pack up and leave with his family to find a better life. "Busted" became a single on Cash's 1963 album Blood, Sweat and Tears. The single reached #13 Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. In the same year, Ray Charles released a version on his album Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul–complete with trumpets–that reached #4 on the Billboard Top 100 chart. In 2005, Charles sang it as a duet with Willie Nelson and included the live recording on his duet album Genius & Friends.
In 2009, Patty Loveless released a cover on her sixteenth studio album Mountain Soul II, altering the song's lyrics so the narrator is a miner instead of a farmer. Wanda Jackson also recorded the original song on her 2011 album The Party Ain't Over.