PETE THE BEST COON DOG IN THE STATE OF TENNESSEE

Boys get your skillet, flour and grease,
We’re gonna have a big country eat,
Ol’ Pete’s got him a runnin’ and he’ll tree him I say,
The best coon dog in the state of Tennessee today.

    Refrain:
    Run Pete run, Buddy Lee get your gun,
    Listen to what I say,
    Run Pete run, Buddy Lee get your gun,
    Pete’s the best coon dog in the state of Tennessee today.

The dogs in Tennessee can’t hold ol’ Pete in line,
He’ll run a big ol’ coon, Lord, all day and night,
He’s half Black and Tan, half Walker I say,
Pete’s the best coon dog in the state of Tennessee today.

(refrain)

Now boys get your dogs and load ’em in the truck,
Get Tige, Pete Junior, Tom T. and ol’ Pete,
Well let’s get down, he’ll prove what I say,
Pete’s the best coon dog in the state of Tennessee today.

(refrain)

I've thoroughly searched the Internet in every way I can think to search, including sites known for having bluegrass lyrics. The only place I can even find a reference to the song is in an archived thread at banjohangout.com.

But I maintain a subscription on Rhapsody that lets me listen to pretty much any song there is as many times as I'd like so I went there and found the recording. Jimmy introduces the song in a way that makes me think he wrote it with members of his band. I can't find any reference to suggest that Tom T. Hall had anything to do with the song. And the song doesn't seem to bear the tool marks of a seasoned professional like Hall. The reference to "Tom T." in the lyrics is just the name of one of the coon dogs.

I've listened over and over to the recording; stopping, starting and replaying sections trying to catch all the lyrics accurately. There is one line I just can't get, to my satisfaction, from the recording. It's the third line of the last verse. I'm sure of "... down, he'll prove what I say" but repeated listenings at various volumes have failed to clarify the words for me. As a working bluegrass musician, I'm quite accustomed to understanding the words of southern bluegrass singers. It sounds like what I've written above but I can't get that line so that I'm certain of it. The rest is accurate with the possible exception of the first dog name in the second line of the last verse. I've written "Tige," a common dog name and one that appears in a lot of old country songs but it could be "Tag" or some similar sounding name.

Hope this helps. I think this is now the only occurrence of these lyrics on the Net.

      - Mark