Story of the Ballad on the Devil's Backbone Tavern
Popularity ยท Low
YouTube
Searching YouTube...
Lyrics
I come from Oregon
I probably told some of you that before, that's where I come from
When I got out of school there by a thread
I got this ride down to Santa Rosa, California
And that didn't work out at all
So I called my brother, he was living in Austin
He had these friends that were letting him stay on their couch
Y'know I figured they might have a couch that I could stay on
So, I got this ride to Austin, Texas
I got to this address from my brother gave me
And this guy introduced himself as Bonehead
And I went in and started asking around
Turned out they didn't have the second couch
They just had the one couch for my brother
But they knew where there was a party
And I thought well that's good enough
So we all got in this car and we drove across town to this party
Where all these people were standing around drinking
And there was this guy in the corner of the party
His name was Trog
And he was six-foot-eight, three-hundred pound guy
And he had a beer in each hand
And he was telling stories
And people gathered around, laughing
And they weren't really funny stories
But he's six-eight, three-hundred pounds
So I went over there and started laughing too, y'know
And then towards the end of the party
When everybody drizzled out a little bit
I got to talking with Trog
Turned out him and his friends
They did have a extra couch that somebody could stay on
So I went over to their house and stayed for like three months, y'know
And we would most of the time at night
We would sit around listening to
Whatever Trog said we were going to listen to on the radio, y'know
Drink beer, whatever
One night, we were sitting there listening
And he put on this CD of this guy I'd never heard by
Jerry Jeff Walker
Who you might, yeah
He, if you hadn't ever heard of him
His main thing people know him for
Is this song Mr. Bojangles
But he's got a ton of great songs
And I'd never heard that kind of music before
And I got so excited
I told my friend, I said "This is it for me", y'know
He said "Well he's playing at this place called Green Hall"
So, that Friday night, me and Trog all got in his truck
And we drove down to Green Hall to see Jerry Jeff
He come out, kinda like tonight like I am
With just a guitar and sang some songs
And I thought "Shit I could do that"
So, I went, I got myself a guitar, y'know
And I started practicing
And a few months later, I was singing
And, I feel like
I got all the Jerry Jeff Walker records that there are
I got every single one
And if you're like me, when you get a record
I like to read the inside, the notes and stuff inside
So was reading in some of these Jerry Jeff Walker records
And it turns out he records most of his stuff
In this little town, not really a studio
But a little town called Luckenbach, Texas
That you might remember from that song
Willie and Waylon and the Boys
In Luckenbach, Texas
The town itself is actually a beer hall, a post office
A house, a parking meter and that's the whole fucking thing
And Jerry Jeff loved to hang out there
And he had become my hero
And they had music of Fridays and Saturdays
So I wanted to play there
So I sent my tape over there
And tried to get them to call me
And they never did call me
And one night we were sitting around
Watching whatever Trog wanted to watch on TV
And the phone rings
And this woman says "Hey this is Large Marge from down in Luckenbach"
"And our show on Saturday canceled"
"And we was wondering if you could come fill in"
And I got excited
Because I've been six or seven months trying to get the show
So I was so excited, my hearts beating
I held the phone and checked with Trog
He said it was OK if we took the gig
And that weekend we all got into this old $450 car that I had
And we started driving down the highway towards Luckenbach, Texas
And friends and neighbors, if you've never been to Luckenbach, Texas
You may never fucking go
Because tourists take the signs that point to it
To keep in their garage and stuff
So you get out to the desert and there's no signs
And of course it was just me and all my friends
All guys in the car, so we drove about another
Two and a half hours before we ever pulled over
And asked anybody where we was
And we were on this thing called the Devil's Backbone Highway, right
So we finally pull into this place
Uniquely named the Devil's Backbone Tavern
And we go in, now all the guys say
"I gotta go in", y'know so I go in there
It's like one of them bars, like everyone's drinking beer
And there's like say 20 people in there
And may say 17 teeth total in the whole place
And I'm not a good fighter
Or very good at protecting myself at all, y'know
So I thought, "Well, this could- this may not work out"
So I saw behind the bar, there was this one older woman
She looked like she was in her 80s
And she kinda hunched over like I remember my grandma started to do
She had curly white hair and she's all
I thought, "Well I could take her"
So I went over, over there
I go up to her I says
"Ma'am we're trying to find Luckenbach and we're so lost"
And I swear this is true
She turned around really slow
I'll never forget it
She turned around
She looked up at me and she kinda smiled
She said "Fuck Luckenbach, drink with us"
So we did
And at the end of the night, y'know
We had got our guitars out
We were singingand everything
Drank a whole bunch of beer
And I went up to her, they called her Miss Vergy
So I said "Miss Virgy, how much do we owe you for the beer"
And she says "You don't owe me nothin' boy"
So we started after that every Friday after that
We would go down, sing for her, y'know
By the end of the summer
I had gotten to know her
And I made this song up
Miss Virgy, wherever she is tonight, I don't know
But I play this for her
It features the hottest guitar work that I can do