Going over yonder

There's an essay here by David Carithers placing the great Steve Earle in the tradition of Emersonian pragmatism. Asked in an interview what qualified him to talk politics, Earle replied:

I'm a citizen in a democracy. That makes me qualified and all of us.

Section II of Carithers' essay is about Earle's opposition to the death penalty. He discusses two of his powerful songs on the subject, 'Billy Austin' from The Hard Way, and 'Over Yonder (Jonathan's Song)' from Transcendental Blues:

I am going over yonder
Where no ghost can follow me
There's another place beyond here
Where I'll be free [that's what] I believe.

I know someone who cannot listen to this song, so painful does she find it.