Lyr Req: Northeast Texas Women (Willis Alan Ramsey

Subject: Lyr Req: Trinity (Texas?) Women
From: GUEST,Bob H
Date: 20 Sep 04 - 08:55 PM

Last weekend at the Winfield festival I heard/learned a song and tried to commit it to memory. Of course, the fact that is was 3 AM and after a bottle of Mouton Cadet meant that come sunrise it was gone. It began,
"South of Oklahoma,
East of New Mexico
West of Louisiana where the cajuns go
Is a little place called Texas
where women grow on trees


The chorus ended

Gotta get young before you get old
Texas women are Texas Gold

There were verses extolling their "cast iron curls and dimples of aluminum" and references to northeast Texas and the Trinity River.
The source for the song said it was on a one-shot wonder album by a Wade Allen somebody (hey, it was NOISY at the Carp Camp with about forty musicians playing!). The melody and tempo was similar to the Band's "Up on Cripple Creek".

Anyone know this one?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Trinity (Texas?) Women
From: 12-stringer
Date: 21 Sep 04 - 01:25 AM

It's Willis Alan Ramsey.

He also wrote "Muskrat Love," and like everybody else who was a folkie in the 70s, I still have his LP somewhere.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Trinity (Texas?) Women
From: 12-stringer
Date: 21 Sep 04 - 01:37 AM

PS: Here's a source for the lyrics, with additional links to "listen" and "tab." Also has the lyrics to the other songs from his LP, most of which are pretty damn good.

http://goneastray.virtualave.net/texwomen.html

Subject: Lyr Add: NORTHEAST TEXAS WOMEN (Willis Alan Ramsey
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 06:58 PM

From the recording at YouTube:


NORTHEAST TEXAS WOMEN
Willis Alan Ramsey

South of Oklahoma, east of New Mexico,
West of Louisiana, where all them Cajuns go,
They got a little place called Texas, where the women grow on trees.
They're right there for the pickin', just easy as you please.

You better run take hold.
You're gonna get young 'fore you get old.
Them Texas women is Texas gold,
Kisses that are sweeter than cactus.

North of Amarillo, east of old Dime Box,
You can find you a Cinderella or a genuine Goldilocks,
And if you don't like love attachments, if your taste in women is strange,
Then go on and spend your money, my friend, down in old La Grange.

You better tell it to the world.
You want to get a Lone-Star girl,
With her cast-iron curls,
And her aluminum dimple,
And it's so simple.

North of Waxahachie, east of old Cowtown,
Them Dallas women standin' up beat the others lyin' down.
Well, God bless the Trinity River and any man who is unaware
Of the northeast Texas women with their cotton-candy hair.

You better run take hold.
You're gonna get young 'fore you get old.
Them Texas women is Texas gold,
Kisses that are sweeter than cactus.

[From the album "Willis Alan Ramsey" (1972). It has also been recorded by Jimmy Buffett, Jerry Jeff Walker, Ed Burleson, and Robby White & the Tejas Gringos. Those other singers may have changed the lyrics a bit, judging from the lyrics I have found at various web sites.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northeast Texas Women (Willis Alan Ramsey
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 07:08 PM

I married a Northeast Texas woman - and I can verify that the song is true.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northeast Texas Women (Willis Alan Ramsey
From: GUEST,Wesley S
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 07:09 PM

Oops - that last guest was me. Guess I better sign in again. I've lost my cookie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northeast Texas Women (Willis Alan Ramsey
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jun 11 - 10:00 AM

In the Ramsey recording that one line is actually
"They're gonna get young before you get old".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northeast Texas Women (Willis Alan Ramsey
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Jun 11 - 03:43 PM

Just an aside. Is there any other state that's as divided up as Texas?

I had a Texan for a friend, and when people asked him where he was from, he didn't say "Texas," he said "East Texas." And I once saw an ad for a hospital which aimed to be "South Texas's finest medical facility."

Of course, there's the Panhandle. I'm not sure just where the Panhandle is.

I once visited the town of West, Texas (it's in East Texas). We noticed that the printer who printed the tourist placemats called it West Texas. Apparently he was so used to dividing the state up that he did it out of habit.

We enjoyed West, Texas. It is the Czech capitol of Texas.

I can see these divisions in some ways, since Texas is so big, but writing a song about Northeast Texas women seems a little extreme.

By the way, what do Texans call the stub to the north, the part that looks like it should belong to Oklahoma?

And do any other states do this?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northeast Texas Women (Willis Alan Ramsey
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 01:07 PM

That "stub to the north" is the panhandle, I believe.

Californians divide their state, too. The terms I've heard are "northern California" which includes San Francisco, and "southern California" which includes Los Angeles.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northeast Texas Women (Willis Alan Ramsey
From: Wesley S
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 02:25 PM

"the part that looks like it should belong to Oklahoma?"

I'd be very cautious about using that phrase in Texas. It could get you in trouble.

West Texas is actually considered to be in north central Texas. It's down below Ft Worth and Dallas.

Here's a link to their big festival - Westfest

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northeast Texas Women (Willis Alan Ramsey
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 03:57 PM

"I'd be very cautious about using that phrase in Texas." Surely among us Mudcatters it's safe to speak the truth.

Thanks for the link to West, Texas - not to be confused with West Texas.

I thought the Panhandle was part of Oklahoma.

As for the song, it's hard to figure out what it's about, although you can't miss the hostility and the would-be cleverness of a guy who's had a little too much beer. I listened to Willis Alan Ramsey for a while. He even sings like he's drunk.

I just spent a week in Austin, at a workshop with Texans of all description, and they were quite decent people. Even the women.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northeast Texas Women (Willis Alan Ramsey
From: Wesley S
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 04:20 PM

Texas and Oklahoma BOTH have panhandles.

It's been said that the Texas panhandle is so flat that you can see 100 miles in any direction. And if you stand on a tuna fish can you can see 200 miles.....