"Hell or High Water " Soundtrack Lyrics

---

"Hell or High Water (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" Soundtrack Description

Overview

What makes a heist movie feel like a lament? This album answers with spare, sandpapered cues from Nick Cave & Warren Ellis that leave air in the frame, then seasons the mix with tough, rootsy songs that sound born on the shoulder of a Texas highway. The soundtrack dropped via Milan Records on August 12, 2016, the same day the film hit U.S. theaters.

The score’s center is “Comancheria” and its variations—low guitar, bowed fiddle, and a slow, circling pulse—while source tracks by Townes Van Zandt, Waylon Jennings, Colter Wall, Scott H. Biram, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Chris Stapleton sketch diners, backroads, and bars. Pitchfork and Milan Records document the track stack and release; the album listing on Apple Music/Spotify matches those credits.

Questions & Answers

Who composed the score?

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis wrote and produced the original score; the album also features select country/roots songs by various artists.

How fast was the score written?

Director David Mackenzie asked for “grainy” music; Cave & Ellis completed the score in roughly ten days (five to write, five to refine/overdub).

What label released the album?

Milan Records issued the soundtrack in August 2016 on digital, CD, and vinyl.

Which song plays over the end credits?

Chris Stapleton’s “Outlaw State of Mind” rolls under the credits.

Is there a trailer ID for figures?

Yes: official trailer YouTube ID JQoqsKoJVDw (CBS Films channel).

Does the album mix score and songs?

Yes. It alternates Cave/Ellis cues with cuts by Townes Van Zandt, Waylon Jennings, Colter Wall, Scott H. Biram, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Chris Stapleton.

Notes & Trivia

• The working U.S. release title for the soundtrack matches the film; in Spain the film released as Comanchería, a nod echoed by cue titles.
• “Comancheria” received its own official video cut from film footage.
• The score sits in Cave & Ellis’s run of American-frontier projects between Far From Men and War Machine.
• The album charted on Billboard’s Top Soundtracks and the UK Official Soundtrack/Country charts.
• Song curation leans old-school: Townes Van Zandt and Waylon Jennings alongside newer voices like Colter Wall and Chris Stapleton.

Genres & Themes

Desert-minimal score → Economic despair with dignity: Bowed fiddle, baritone guitar, and drumless pulses avoid melodrama; the emptiness reads as debt, drought, and time running out.

Outlaw country & red-dirt cuts → Law vs. code: Jennings, Hubbard, Biram, Stapleton bring barroom ethics—fatalism, gallows humor, stubborn pride.

Americana ballads → Family calculus: Van Zandt’s weary drawl and Wall’s graveled youth highlight choices made for kin, not glory.

Tracks & Scenes

“Comancheria” — Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
Where it plays: Early establishing passages and throughout as a tonal motif (non-diegetic).
Why it matters: Defines the moral weather—low, patient, unblinking.

“Dollar Bill Blues” — Townes Van Zandt
Where it plays: Early credits/drive-back sequence after the opening job (needle-drop).
Why it matters: Bitter wordplay meets dust-track swing; frames robbery as a poor man’s arithmetic.

“Robbery” — Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
Where it plays: First daylight bank hit and later echoes (non-diegetic, percussive guitar figure).
Why it matters: A nervous tick; it measures risk more than it sells excitement.

“Dust of the Chase” — Ray Wylie Hubbard
Where it plays: Mid-film getaway/road montage (needle-drop).
Why it matters: Road-rasp vocal turns the brothers’ flight into ritual—keep rolling, don’t look back.

“You Ask Me To” — Waylon Jennings
Where it plays: Radio/bar interior between robberies (diegetic/needle-drop feel).
Why it matters: Old-code tenderness undercuts the film’s hard edges; a brief humane breather.

“Sleeping on the Blacktop” — Colter Wall
Where it plays: Midway montage over cattle, highways, and heat (needle-drop).
Why it matters: Asphalt-beat storytelling; new-school outlaw grit that fits Sheridan’s modern-Western world.

“Blood, Sweat and Murder” — Scott H. Biram
Where it plays: Bar/road transition leading toward the late-film clash (needle-drop).
Why it matters: Sermon-growl about consequences; foreshadows the cost of Tanner’s escalation.

“From My Cold Dead Hands” — Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
Where it plays: Stakeout/scope-gaze tension (non-diegetic cue).
Why it matters: Title and tone pull the film’s gun-culture satire into the music without preaching.

“Outlaw State of Mind” — Chris Stapleton
Where it plays: End credits.
Why it matters: A hard stomp to exit on—swagger with a hangover.

Trusted references for placements, credits & releases: Milan Records; Pitchfork; Apple Music; IMDb Soundtracks; Mediastinger; Wikipedia.

Music–Story Links

Score cues keep the film’s moral math sober: every spare bar underlines that the brothers’ plan is about inheritance, not thrills. When the radio sneaks in Waylon or Townes, decency and debt share the same room. The newer outlaw voices—Wall, Stapleton—bridge eras, so the final standoff feels less like heroics than fallout. By the last conversation on the porch, the music’s restraint has trained us to hear the silence.

How It Was Made

David Mackenzie asked for a “grainy” sound. Cave & Ellis wrote fast—about five days to compose, five to refine and overdub strings—and recorded with a small ensemble. Milan’s Q&A with Warren Ellis and label notes outline the quick turnaround. The curated songs come from deep-catalog country and contemporary Americana; Milan’s release page and the composers’ site confirm selections and formats (digital/CD/vinyl).

Reception & Quotes

Critics repeatedly singled out the music’s restraint and fit. The album charted on U.S. and UK soundtrack lists; year-end polls put the film among 2016’s standouts.

“Epic and expansive without being grandiose.” Director David Mackenzie via Pitchfork

“Free-floating in its sadness… conjures up a mood—gorgeously—not a meaning.” Vulture on the score

“Excellent.” The Guardian

Availability: the 15-track album streams widely (Apple Music, Spotify) and is in print on CD/vinyl.

Additional Info

• Album label: Milan Records; physical and digital editions released August–September 2016.
• Official video: “Comancheria” cut from film imagery.
• Closing-credits confirmation: “Outlaw State of Mind.”
• Alternate regional title Comanchería influenced cue naming.
• Chart notes: UK Country Artists Albums (peak No. 3), Billboard Top Soundtracks (peak Top 20).

Technical Info

• Title: Hell or High Water (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
• Year: 2016
• Type: Film soundtrack (score + curated songs)
• Composers/Producers: Nick Cave; Warren Ellis
• Key songs featured: “Dollar Bill Blues” (Townes Van Zandt); “You Ask Me To” (Waylon Jennings); “Sleeping on the Blacktop” (Colter Wall); “Blood, Sweat and Murder” (Scott H. Biram); “Dust of the Chase” (Ray Wylie Hubbard); “Outlaw State of Mind” (Chris Stapleton)
• Label: Milan Records (digital/CD/vinyl)
• Trailer ID for figures: JQoqsKoJVDw

Canonical Entities & Relations

Subject	Relation	Object
Hell or High Water (film, 2016)	directed by	David Mackenzie
Hell or High Water (film)	music by	Nick Cave; Warren Ellis
Hell or High Water (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)	record label	Milan Records
“Comancheria”	composed by	Nick Cave; Warren Ellis
“Outlaw State of Mind”	performed by	Chris Stapleton
“Sleeping on the Blacktop”	performed by	Colter Wall
“Blood, Sweat and Murder”	performed by	Scott H. Biram
“Dollar Bill Blues”	performed by	Townes Van Zandt

Sources: Milan Records; Pitchfork; Apple Music; Spotify; IMDb Soundtracks; Mediastinger; Wikipedia (film & soundtrack pages).

Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine are two major stars here. The first one is Oscar winner and the second may win it, thanks to this movie, in the upcoming year. It is often done so, when it firstly opened in Cannes and then, several months later, is premiered on big screen. It already was well met by critics, with average score 8 out of 10, which indicates very favorable opinion about it. Well, we still have the time to learn more about this movie, as it is going to be premiered in the US only in mid of August 2016. It is about two brothers, who decide to rob banks to earn some money to repay the huge bank debt that their mom had, which might lead her to bankruptcy. ‘Momma Told Me Not To Come’ is one of the trailer songs, despite the fact that it is not officially presented in the soundtrack here. What we have presented is Dollar Bill Blues by bluesman Townes Van Zandt. Pretty heartbreaking lyrics it contains and shouldn’t be listened too often, as otherwise you may lose the desire to live. Ray Wylie Hubbard’s Dust of the Chase is low-mood blues country music. 5 minutes of pure blue spirits. It is pretty depressing. Would you expect that other songs were better in their mood? Probably, only You Ask Me To stands out, as it has cheering lyrics and music tempo. Over a dozen songs of the collection say that it is not that sophisticated in terms of music production, rather all the focus was made on plot. The songs present here perfectly underline the overall gloomy atmosphere of hopelessness and despair that pushed normal people to commit crimes. They were normal ordinary two guys, living in the small town, trying to earn for living with decent jobs. But when big banks took everything from them, they’ve decided to restore justice and nothing more. Will they succeed? We surely hope so.

November, 10th 2025

Movie profile on Rottentomatoes.com and Imdb.com

---

A-Z Lyrics Universe

---