Ft. Worth Blues

Big curve ball today — as I’m helping shoot video in Sheridan, Wyoming for a friend who’s live streaming a Buck Brannaman horse training event. The cowboy hats and country music have put me in the mood for some Steve Earle. And this tune is just one of those special songs I remember putting on a hundred playlists in the 90’s during what feels like the heyday of Alternative Country music. From the great record El Corazon, this sad old tune is a classic and was written for Steve’s hero Townes Van Zandt — one of Texas’s greatest songwriters. He suffered from depression and was quite a character. I love the idea of Steve traveling the globe playing music and seeing him in all these places. Margaret Brown’s BE HERE TO LOVE ME is a terrific doc about Townes and worth seeking out. This outstanding live version was performed 25 years ago.

In Ft. Worth all the neon's burnin' bright
Pretty lights
Red and blue
But they'd shut down all the honky tonks tonight
And say a prayer or two
If they only knew
You used to say the highway was your home
But we both know
That ain't true
It's just the only place a man can go
When he don't know
Where he's travelin' to

But Colorado's always clean and healin'
And Tennessee in Spring is green and cool
It never really was your kind of town
But you went around
With the Ft. Worth Blues

Somewhere up beyond the great divide
Where the sky is wide
And the clouds are few
A man can see his way clear to the light
Just hold on tight
That's all you gotta do

And they say Texas weather's always changin'
And one thing change'll bring is somethin' new
And Houston really ain't that bad a town
So you hang around
With the Ft. Worth Blues

There's a full moon over Galway Bay tonight
Silver light
Over green and blue
And every place I travel through, I find
Some kinda sign
That you've been through

But Amsterdam was always good for grieving
And London never fails to leave me blue
Paris never was my kinda town
So I walked around
With the Ft. Worth Blues