This isn't a song or anything, just a few tattered strips from my thought process.
KEEP THE 'BILLIES ON THE ROAD
Little Jimmy didn't get to see the dress his wife wore at their son's graduation/And if you flash back about eighteen years, he wasn't there to see the look on her face when the doctors handed her their baby boy/But she did get to see the paramedics dig the vomit and pills out of his mouth/Keep the 'billies on the road
Anita dreamed a dream that came true/She didn't go back to the boy at the candy store/Forgot the name of her hometown long before she stopped looking back/Had a new man every day and a new woman every third wednesday/She bought herself a nice 2-story out in Montana/Didn't get to see much of it but that was fine when you consider that the label bought her one just like it in Texas/And they're getting the paperwork ready as we speak to get that Florida condo off the ground/Keep the 'billies on the road
Eugene was one of those rare child prodigies who bloomed even further as an adult/He played the mandolin about as good as Mr. Crossroads himself played the guitar/Except that Eugene owed his skills more to genetics than signing away his soul/Eugene was an atheist anyway, so that would've never worked out/He made his bones out on the county fair circuit with various bluegrass bands and did a little session work on the side/His profile as a top session hand grew to the point that he could demand enough money per cut to start his own band/This coincided nicely with the fact that it was getting harder for him to play in another bandleader's group/A lot of guys resented Eugene because he was a lot younger, had better chops and pulled in more money/As the years went by, the session work gave him the capital to keep the best band in his field/Which, in turn, kept his star shining so his price tag could stay in the stratosphere/Or, at least for what passes for the stratosphere in the world of bluegrass music/He gave a lot back to the community/The new library and animal shelter in his hometown were practically built by his work on the mandolin/Really, there were only two things wrong with Eugene/He went through wives and steep ass alimony payments the way other musicians went through wives and steep ass alimony payments/And, in nearly every town in the southeastern United States/There was always one kid who looked just like him being raised by a single mom/Keep the 'billies on the road
Ricky, Brian, Dale & Tom all sucked in school/They sucked at atheletics too/Their classmates all agreed that Ricky, Brian, Dale & Tom each had that look like they were going to grow up to be either gas station attendants or famous musicians/They weren't exactly studio aces on their instruments and none of them could sing/But they played loud and looked authentic/Before their bus flipped over/They managed to see every city in America and a suprisingly large amount of the Netherlands since that area of the world is a strong market for roots music/They also ate a lot of terrible, greasy diner food and had nearly fired their bass player three weeks before the bus flipped over because of his heroin problem/Keep the 'billies on the road
Keep The 'Billies On The Road
- miss buenos aires
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