by Jimmy Driftwood



Along about eighteen and twenty-five

I left Tennessee very much alive

I never would have got through the Arkansas mud

If I hadn't been a-ridin on the Tennessee stud



I had some trouble with my sweetheart's pa

One of her brothers was a bad outlaw

I sent her a letter by my Uncle Fud

And I rode away on the Tennessee stud



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The Tennessee stud was long and lean

The color of the sun and his eyes were green

He had the nerve and he had the blood

And there never was a hoss like the Tennessee stud



One day I was ridin' in the beautiful land

And ran smack into an Indian band

They jerked their knives with a whoop and a yell

But I rode away like a bat out of hell



Well I circled their camp for a time or two

And showed what a Tennessee hoss could do

And them redskin boys never got my blood

'Cause I was a-ridin' on the Tennessee stud



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We drifted on down into no man's land

We crossed the river called the Rio Grande

I raced my hoss with the Spaniards bold

Till I got me a skin full of silver and gold



Me and a gambler we couldn't agree

We got in a fight over Tennessee

We jerked our guns, he fell with a thud

And I got away on the Tennessee stud



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Well, I got as lonesome as a man can be

Dreamin' of my girl in Tennessee

The Tennessee stud's green eyes turned blue

'Cause he was a-dneamin' of a sweetheart too



We loped on back across Arkansas

I whipped her brother and I whipped her pa

I found that girl with the golden hair

And she was ridin' on a Tennessee mare



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Stirrup to stirrup and side by side

We crossed the mountains and the valleys wide

We came to Big Muddy and we forded the flood

On the Tennessee mare and the Tennessee stud



Pretty little baby on the cabin floor

Little hoss colt playin' 'round the door

I love the girl with golden hair

And the Tennessee stud loves the Tennessee mare



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