Sam’s classic song

Sir — In her obituary of Sam Shepard, Barbara McCarthy (Sunday Independent, August 6) mentions several times that he was a cowboy and also that he was a “rock ’n’ roll Jesus with the cowboy mouth”.

But she does not mention that the defining point of this aspect of Sam Shepard was that he was co-writer with Bob Dylan of the classic ‘cowboy song’ Brownsville Girl, which is so good that on its own it made the album where it appeared, Knocked Out Loaded, worthwhile despite the rest of that album being completely unremarkable. Frank Desmond, Turners Cross, Cork City