Nashville 1972

(album: Close Ties - 2017)

I had a dog named Banjo and a girl named Muffin
I'd just blew in from Texas and I didn't know nothing
I found my way around this town with a friend I made named Guy
Who loved Susanna and so did I

Now there was this run down shack on Acklen Avenue
That I shared with Skinny Dennis
And a poet name of Richard Dobson who had a novel he'd never finish
That's when Johnny Rodrigues, David Olney and Steve Earle first came through
And every other guitar bum whose name I never knew

Old School Nashville, Harlan Howard, Bob McDill
Tom T Hall go drink your fill and blow us all away

There was this tight-rope-walker who called herself the queen of Poughkeepsie
Who ran away from the circus with some roustabout redneck gypsy
They were Townes Van Zandt fans and prone to combustion
They fought like dogs in Spanish and made love in Russian

I wish Newberry and Buck White would drop on by the house tonight
Things have changed round here you bet, but it don't seem much better yet

I first met Willie Nelson with some friends at a party
I was twenty-two years old and he was pushing forty
There was hippies and reefer and God knows what all I was drinking pretty hard
I played him this shitty song I wrote and puked out in the yard

Old School Nashville, Harlan Howard, Bob McDill
Tom T Hall go drink your fill and blow us all away