This song is in open D tuning (dadf#ad) with a capo on the second fret There are mainly four core parts that are repeated throughout the song -Intro -low part -high part -step down Probably the most important aspect of playing this song is the alternate picking of the low d strings. Throughout the whole song Steve Earle alternates picking the two low d with his thumb. This is most likely the thing that will get you and requires a lot of before getting it constant. The intro is a combination of the low part and the high part *Intro* d --------------------------------------------------| a -0---------0-----2---------2-----0----------------| f#-------0---------------1---------------1-----0----| d -----0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0----| a --------------------------------------------------| d -0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0--------| *Low Part* d --------------------------------------------------| a -0---------0-----0---------0-----0---------0------| f#-------0---------------0---------------0----------| d -----0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0----| a --------------------------------------------------| d -0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0--------| *High Part* d --------------------------------------------------| a -2---------2-----2---------2-----2---------2------| f#-------1---------------1---------------1----------| d -----0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0----| a --------------------------------------------------| d -0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0--------| *Step Down* d ------------------------------------------------------------------| a -----4-------4-------4-------4-------2-------2-------2-------2----| f#-----3-------3-------3-------3-------1-------1-------1-------1----| d -----0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0----| a ------------------------------------------------------------------| d -0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0--------| Now that you have those four parts you can combine them into the whole song The order is: Intro low part high part Intro high part Intro Step Down Intro The order presented is for each set of verses not the whole song. It would be best if you were to play the recording of this song off the album Townes by Earle or watch the video on youtube. The correct video is Steve Earle playing the song Letterman. I hope you get this song and remember that this style of alternate picking takes a lot patience and dedication to master. Good Luck! * If there are any problems or hazy parts feel free to e-mail me explaining the problem I'll try to respond to it and fix the error. Thanks