Essential Steve Earle lyrics

Hey pretty baby are you ready for me
It's your good rockin' daddy down from Tennessee
I'm just out of Austin bound for San Antone
With the radio blastin' and the bird dog on
There's a speed trap up ahead in Selma Town
But no local yokel gonna shut me down
'Cause me and my boys got this rig unwound
And we've come a thousand miles from a Guitar Town
Nothin' ever happened 'round my hometown

My Grand Daddy was a miner, but he finally saw the light
He didn't have much, just a beat up truck
And a dream about a better life
Grand Mama waved goodbye you never heard such a lonesome sound
Pretty soon the dirt road turned into blacktop
Detroit City bound

[Chorus]
Down that hillbilly highway
On that hillbilly highway
That old hillbilly highway
Goes on and on

About the time that Daddy left to fight the big war
I saw my first pistol in the general store
In the general store, when I was thirteen
Thought it was the finest thing I ever had seen
So l asked if I could have one someday when I grew up
Mama dropped a dozen eggs, she really blew up
She really blew up and I didn't understand
Mama said the pistol is the devil's right hand

There ain't a lot that you can do in this town
You drive down to the lake and then you turn back around
You go to school and you learn to read and write
So you can walk into the county bank and sign away your life
I work at the fillin' station on the interstate
Pumpin' gasoline and countin' out of state plates
They ask me how far into Memphis son, and where's the nearest beer

I got a job but it ain't nearly enough
A twenty thousand dollar pickup truck
Belongs to me and the bank and some funny talkin' man from Iran
I left the service and got a G.I. loan
I got married bought myself a home
Now I hang around this one horse town and do the best than I can
Gettin' tough
Just my luck
I was born in the land of plenty now there ain't enough
Gettin' cold

Well my name's John Lee Pettimore
Same as my daddy and his daddy before
You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here
He only come a town about twice a year
He'd buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line
Everybody knew that he made moonshine
Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad
He headed up the holler with everything he had
It's before my time but I've been told

The old man loaded up everything that he owned
On a wagon and headed out west
The old woman fearlessly faced the unknown
'Cause she figured he knew what was best
And they settled down hard on a government grant
With six mouths to feed and forty acres to plant
And the rain came down
Like an angel come down from above
And the rain came down

I was born by the railroad tracks
Well the train whistle wailed and I wailed right back
Well papa left mama when I was quite young
He said now "One of these days you're gonna follow me son"
Woh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
I ain't ever satisfied
Woh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
I ain't ever satisfied

Now I had me a woman she was my world
But I ran off with my back street girl

There's a road, in Oklahoma
Straighter than a preacher
Longer than a memory
And it goes, forever onward
Been a good teacher
For a lot of country boys like me
I push that load from here to someday
I'll push as long as I'm alive, but I don't know how long I'll last
'Cause it's just a road, it ain't no highway
I'm blowin' by the double five
I know I'm going way too fast

I pulled out of pittsburgh rolling down the eastern seaboard
I’ve got my diesel wound up and she’s running like never before
There’s a speed zone ahead on right and I ain’t see a cop all night
Six days on the road and now I’m gonna make it home tonight

I got a ten forward gears and a georgia overdrive
I take little white pills and my eyes are open wide