The bluegrass outlaw repertoire goes well past the canon. These songs are the deep cuts — bandits, escapees, holdups, and characters who lived outside the law. Carter Stanley wrote some. Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty” sits here. Older ballads about Jesse James, Cole Younger, and lesser-known outlaws round out the list. Bluegrass borrowed liberally from country’s outlaw tradition and from old broadside ballads on the same subject.

Each song’s page on Picker’s Guide has chord charts, lyrics, recordings, and song history.