Lyr ADD: Way Down the Road (Craig Johnson)

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Way Down the Road (Craig Johnson)
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 07:28 AM

Well it looks as tho' we have finally solved the enigma of the Gunstick Laurel!
Melissa and I made contact thru Craig's Bandcamp page, and we received a really helpful reply from Brenda VanLunen (Craig's widow, I guess?) -
>>The lyrics were published in a song magazine in 1983, and said "gumstick". I actually think that's an error and it should be "gunstick", since gunstick laurel is an actual Appalachian plant: check out the Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/browse/search/guide-to-the-great-smoky-mountains-national-park-18679/search-ob
<< She also attached the lyrics (below)... >> as I have them. They're not exactly the same as in the magazine, but close enough... Craig probably sang it a little differently each time<<

So here we have it:

I remember back in '33
When we were still down in Tennessee,
Just gettin' by took all your time,
Away down the road.
The word went out in '41
Uncle Sam said get the big job done,
So we hired out at Willow Run
Away down the road.

Blow your whistle up through the pines
Out across the mountains and the Clinchfield Line
Blow for better times
Away down the road

Well we come from the mountains and the damp coal mines,
Started in to working on Henry's lines,
Eight hours steady and overtime,
Away down the road.
The city folks didn't want us 'round,
So they moved us out to the edge of town,
Salt box houses on the bulldozed ground,
Away down the road.

Chorus

We were strong backs bending in the welder's light,
Rivet guns pounding on a windy night,
A rich man's war, a poor man's fight,
Away down the road.
Punch in, punch out, make your time,
Hurry with the turret boys, you're getting behind,
The bombers roared low in the blacked-out skies,
Away down the road.

Chorus

You try to pay the rent man, try to save a buck,
Patching up the tires on a wore-out truck,
City folks pass and holler "Hey Kentuck",
Away down the road.
You say you'll move back south when the war gears down,
But your dreams die easy when your check comes round,
Caught between the mountains and a factory town,
Away down the road.

Chorus

Now the plant's closed down and the gates are closed,
New cars rust in the rain and snow,
Let me sleep where the gunstick laurel grows,
Away down the road.
You can bury me down in Tennessee,
'He lived for a dollar' - let my tombstone read
And died unknown in a strange country,
Away down the road.

Chorus

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Way Down the Road (Craig Johnson)
From: cnd
Date: 10 Apr 23 - 10:31 AM

Thanks for getting in contact with them, MoorleyMan.

The link to which Ms. VanLunen references is here, page 99 of Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (1933) by George M. McCoy and George Masa. Unfortunately, the reference here is still to a place, and not a plant. And perhaps more frustratingly, the reference still seems to originate with Mr. Kephart -- it's not so direct here as in other places, but it's pretty clear from the numerous references to him that the writers relied on Kephart a good deal for place names and guidance; additionally, I know for a fact Masa and Kephart were close acquaintances. Here's an excerpt from pages 97-99:

"Dr. Cain says that there seem to be three catastrophic factors influencing the formation and maintenance of heath balds in tin Great Smoky Mountains. They are: Windfall, landslide and fire. Of these factors fire, he says, is by far the most important. Horace Kephart of Bryson City, with many other woodsmen and mountain people, believed that fire is a very important if not universal factor in the initiation and maintenance of heath balds.

Huggins' Hell, one of the largest of these heath thickets, is in the Hazel Creek section. It contains possibly four or five hundred acres of rhododendron and laurel thickets. Irving Huggins, who lived in the Hazel Creek section, was herding cattle on Siler's Bald one day and wanted to reach another knob. He thought he could cross the intervening "slick" but was trapped there for a number of days before he could find his way out. There is another heath thicket called "Hug- gins' Hell" in the Alum Cave Creek section.

The slicks have interesting names. There are Devil's Race Path, Devils
Court House, Woolly Ridge, Gunstick Laurel, Rip Shin Thicket, Wooly Head Slick, Big Slick, Cage Drive Slick, Ivy Stalks, Little Slick and many others.

PS: George Masa is a very fascinating character to look into if you ever get the chance. I just bought a book showing his photography of the region, and it provides what is known of his biography.