Lyr Add: Blackjack County Chain (Tex Williams)

Subject: Lyr Add: BLACKJACK COUNTY CHAIN (Tex Williams)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 29 Sep 99 - 10:42 PM

BLACKJACK COUNTY CHAIN
from singing of Tex Williams
by R. Lane

I was sittin' by the road in Blackjack County
Not knowin' that the sheriff paid a bounty
For men like me who haven't got a penny to their name
And he locked my legs in 35 pounds of Blackjack County chain.

And all we had to eat was bread and water
Each day we built the road a mile and a quarter
And a black snake whip would tear our backs if some poor fool complained
And you couldn't fight back wearing 35 pounds of Blackjack County chain.

And then one night while the sheriff he was a-sleepin'
We all gathered 'round him midnight creepin'
And Lord help me to forget that night out in the cold cold rain
When we beat him to death with 35 pounds of Blackjack County chain.

Now the whip marks are all healed and I'm thankful
There's nothing but a scar around my snkle
But most of all I'm glad no man is gonna be a slave again
To a black snake whip and 35 pounds of Blackjack County chain.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Lyric Add: Blackjack County Chain (Tex W
From: Frank of Toledo
Date: 29 Sep 99 - 11:23 PM

I was working a small C&W station in Warwick, RI in the late 60's, WYNG, and that was a single by Willie Nelson on RCA and boy did I ever love that when it first came out. Learned it right away and but for you tickling my memory button, Art, I haven't done it in years. Picked up the guitar and tried to redo it. I think I did it in Am with a G and an E7 and somethin' else. Where did you come up with this one Art. Ah the treasures of the past, a real gift for this ol' fart.... Thanks again Art. I'm glad you listed the author Red Lane. He wrote a few gems with another fine writer Liz Anderson, who wrote one of Merle Haggard"s hits, "TheFugitive".

Subject: RE: Lyric Add: Blackjack County Chain (Tex W
From: CarlZen
Date: 30 Sep 99 - 08:46 PM

Art - Thanks for the lyrics. I know it from Del McCoury's singing. His 'high lonesome' fits the lyrics really well. BTW - at the Millpond Traditional Music Festival 2 weeks age Utah Phillips had some nice things to say about you at a storytelling workshop. Some thing about you ahnging basck, not opening your mouth during a late night session of story swapping, and then right as everyone was ready to get up and leave you dropped the bomb. It was a story about a horse which Utah then proceeded to tell. Oddly, I remember his telling about you telling the story better than I can remember the story itself.

Subject: RE: Lyric Add: Blackjack County Chain (Tex W
From: Art Thieme
Date: 01 Oct 99 - 12:13 AM

Frank, I used to do "B.jack C.Chain" in the key of Am too. I know Jim Ringer did it that way also. I first heard it as a country hit by Tex Williams.

Mr. Zen., That late night drinking & story swapping session was at a bar/folkclub in Chicago called Somebody Else's Troubles. It was owned by Steve Goodman, Earl (Of Old Town) Pionke, Fred Holstein and Bill Redhed. We had said that nobody would go home until someone told "the terminal story---the one that was obviously the end of a pretty fine evening.

Let's see---how did that go...?

There was an old hobo on the road walking for miles and his feet were killing him. He was passing a farm & noticed an old horse there by the house and he announced to the farmer, "Sir, you've got to sell me that horse!" The farmer told him, "No way. You don't want that horse! That horse is an egg setter---it sits on eggs!!" The 'bo responded by sayin', "Damnit, you better sell me that *&^%$#@@ horse, or else!" The farmer, fearing bodily harm, sold the hobo the horse. And sure enough, the 'bo was going down the road and, as he passed a field, the horse threw him of it's back, leaped over the fence and into the field where it proceeded to plop right down on a nest on the ground full of eggs. It took the guy 3 hours to get the horse off the nest. Egg was running down all over the horse's backside. Eventually, the guy got back on the horse and went on down the road.

A day passed---and then another day. The horse was crossing a bridge when it threw the hobo off again (breaking his back) and, leaping into the water, it sat right down in the middle of the fairly shallow river.

Six months later--the fellow got out of traction. He carefully rode that horse back to the farm where he'd forced the farmer to sell it to him. He confronted the farmer! "Look, you told me that that horse sits on eggs and he did just that. He sat on a nest full of 'em and had yellow & crap all over his ass. Finally I got on him again and he tossed me off, busted my back, and I'm just getting out of the hospital now. After throwing me off, he jumped in the water & sat down right in the middle of the damn river. What the hell is that all about???" "Ya know", said the farmer, I was kickin' myself for not telling ya, but I just forgot. It must've slipped my mind. I sure should've told you." The hobo screamed at thye farmer, "Ya should've told me what???" "Hell," said the farmer, "He sits on fish too!"...

Art

Subject: RE: Lyric Add: Blackjack County Chain (Tex W
From: Art Thieme
Date: 01 Oct 99 - 12:24 AM

Carl,

Please explain what "ahnging basxk" means! I can't ever remember using those words. But if Utah says I used 'em, well, I must've. Mr. Phillips never lies.

Art

Subject: RE: Lyric Add: Blackjack County Chain (Tex W
From: CarlZen
Date: 01 Oct 99 - 10:37 PM

Art, That should teach me to edit before clicking the "submit" button. My fingers went temporarily dyslexic. "hanging back" was what I was tyring to type. "Holding back" may have been better. The idea was that everyone else was telling their stories and you kept quiet until you unloaded the story on them. The whole point Utah was making was the importance of timing.

Subject: RE: Lyric Add: Blackjack County Chain (Tex W
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 01 Oct 99 - 11:45 PM

Of course, Art, you could have looked in the Digitrad database and saved some wear and tear on your typing finger...

Subject: RE: Lyric Add: Blackjack County Chain (Tex W
From: Art Thieme
Date: 02 Oct 99 - 11:49 AM

Dick--Howdy. I did search there & was told nothing was found...

Art

Subject: RE: Lyric Add: Blackjack County Chain (Tex W
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 02 Oct 99 - 02:38 PM

Art- That's odd. I just tried a search for [county chain] and there it was. What did you search for? (Jest trying to debug the DT)

Subject: RE: Lyric Add: Blackjack County Chain (Tex W
From: Art Thieme
Date: 04 Oct 99 - 09:36 PM

"Blackjack County" or some variation like "County Chain"

Art