The Great Hank
Robert Earl Keen

Then there was the time

I saw the great Hank Williams singing on the stage in Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania and he was all dressed up in drag

From his rose red lips to his rhinestone hips he belted

Out song after song as he drank from a brown paper bag

And the songs he sang of love and pain,

So pure perfect reflections of human imperfections,

It damn near choked me up

But the rest of the show, was kind of slow

And then someone woke me up


Later on the Astros were silently beating the living crap

Out of Cincinnati on the tv above

And a little to the left of the great Hank Williams' head

As a busty suicide blonde waitress poured him a double shot of 'whatever you got'

And laughingly said I thought you were dead

The pool balls cracked as he tilted his head back

And told her how he had been a big star but now country music was full of freaks

He sat there, in the tv glare

Mascara streaked his cheeks


When I was only sixteen years old I went from Houston to Abilene

With a spunky stunningly handsome woman in a Volkswagen Bug

She was grown with some kids all her own,

A committment-free divorcee, and I was a man in love

We had only one 8-track tape but it was of the late great

Hank Williams and we sang in two-part harmony

Hey good lookin', how's about cookin'

Something up with me


Back at the bar they were calling last call

So I gave the barmaid a credit card to pay up my tab

The tv was turned off and the stage was dark

And the great Hank Williams was gone so I asked her to call me a cab

She said if you like I can give you a ride,

So there we were out the door and into the city of brotherly love

Into the night, out of sight

In a vw Bug


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Lyrics by Robert Earl Keen

  (My Home Ain't In The) Hall of Fame   (My Home Ain't In The) Hall Of Fame   A Border Tale   A Border Tragedy   All I Have Is Today   Barbeque   Beats The Devil   Billy Gray   Black Baldy Stallion   Blow You Away   Broken End Of Love   Coming Home Of The Son And Brother   Copenhagen   Corpus Christi Bay   Crazy Cowboy Dream   Daddy Had A Buick   Don't turn out the light   Don't Turn Out The Light   Down That Dusty Trail   Dreadful Selfish Crime   Fallin' Out   Fallin' Out   Farm Fresh Onions   Feelin' Good Again   Feelin' Good Again   For Love   Fourth Of July   Furnace Fan   Goin' Down in Style   Goin' Nowhere Blues   Goin' Down In Style   Goin' Nowhere Blues   Gravitational Forces   Gringo Honeymoon   Happy Holidays Y'all   Happy Holidays Y'all   Hello New Orleans   High Plains Jamboree   I Gotta Go   I Still Miss Someone   I Wanna Know   I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight   I Would Change My Life   I'll Be Here for You   I'll Go on Downtown   I'm Comin' Home   I'm Coming Home   I'll Be Here For You   I'll Go On Downtown   I'm Coming Home   If I Were King   It's The Little Things   It's The Little Things   Jennifer Johnson & Me   Jennifer Johnson & Me   Jennifer Johnson And Me   Lay Down My Brother   Leavin Tennessee   Let The Music Play   Levelland   Lonely Feeling   Long Chain   Love's A Word I Never Throw Around   Love's A Word I Never Throw Around   Lynnville Train   Lynville Train   Maria   Mariano   Merry Christmas From The Family   Mr. Wolf And Mamabear   New Life In Old Mexico   No Kinda Dancer   Not A Drop Of Rain   Not A Drop Of Rain (Live)   Oh Rosie   Out Here In The Middle   Over The Waterfall   Paint The Town Beige   Play A Train Song   Ready For Confetti   Ride   Road To No Return/carolina   Rolling By   Runnin' With the Night   Runnin' With The Night   Shades Of Gray   Show The World   Sing One For Sister   Snowin' On Raton   Snowin' On Raton (Live)   Snowin' On Raton   So I Can Take My Rest   Something I Do   Song For Kathy   Sonora's Death Row   Sonora's Death Row   Soul Of Man   Stewball   Still Without You/conclusion: Road To No Return   Swervin' In The Lane   Swervin' In The Lane   That Buckin' Song   That Buckin' Song (Live)   The Bluegrass Widow   The Buckin' Song   The Buckin' Song   The Dark Side Of The World   The Five Pound Bass   The Front Porch Song   The Raven And The Coyote   The Road Goes On And On   The Road Goes On Forever   The Traveling Storm   The Wild Ones   Then Came Lo Mein   These Years   Think It Over One Time   Throwin' Rocks   Throwin' Rocks   Tom Ames' Prayer   Tom Ames' Prayer   Top Down   Train Trek   Travelin' Light   Travelin' Light (Live)   Travelin' Light   Undone   Walkin' Cane   Walkin' Cane   Waves On The Ocean   What I Really Mean   Whenever Kindness Fails   Who Do Man   Who'll Be Looking Out for Me   Who'll Be Looking Out For Me   Wild Wind   Willie

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