COUDERAY (YOU'RE A NASTY OL' TOWN)
Mike Cowdery

Couderay, Couderay, you're a nasty old town.
Your face is all withered in a permanent frown.
Your women are ugly. Your children are mean.
Couderay, you're the damnedest town I've ever seen.

I've traveled this country and picked my guitar
In tank-town saloons and the honky-tonk bars.
I've seen all the hellholes, but far and away,
The worst of the lot is still old Couderay.

You're a musty old place and a crusty old lot.
You've got warts on your face and, as likely as not,
You steal from your neighbors and you water your booze,
And your women go dancing in old army shoes.

REPEAT FIRST VERSE.

Couderay, Couderay, you know it ain't right.
You know that I'd love to be with you tonight,
But I'll be here forever if you don't raise my bail
To get my bones out of the Couderay jail.

[Recorded by Marvin Rainwater on "Country Music Is Alive and Well", Hoky 107, 1981.]

This song is frequently requested and played on the Honky Tonk program, Saturday nights on radio station WOJB, Hayward, Wisconsin, from which I transcribed these lyrics. Hayward (2000 pop. 2,129) is about 15 miles from Couderay (2000 pop. 96). I doubt that Couderay really has a jail.

I figure "Couderay" is an Anglicization of "Courte Oreilles," a nearby lake named by French fur traders, from which a band of Ojibwa (or Chippewa) Indians takes its name. But what about Cowdery? His name seems too similar to Couderay to be a coincidence, but I don't know anything about him.

WOJB takes its call letters from "Ojibwa" and is owned by the band, which is probably another reason why Marvin Rainwater is popular there. Marvin Rainwater is 1/4 Cherokee and his songs make frequent reference to Indians. He currently lives in Aitkin, Minnesota.