Big Country Blues lyrics

I've been up the Mississippi to the Manitoba line

I've been downstream to the Gulf of Mexico

Followed the sun west to Californ'

And there just ain't no place for me left to go

Spent a lonesome month in Maine, and a year in Louisian'

Packed my bags and hit the Western Trail

Rambled down through Texas till I came to El Paso

Spent a week in a stinkin' Juarez jail

I rambled through Nevada, gamblin' most of my life away

I headed north when I heard Dakota call

Well, I stayed until the Northers came rollin' down the line

Headed south when summer turned to fall

I've been north and east and south where the cotton grows

Out in the west where the sun forever shines

I've bent my back for a dollar a day in a Texas sugar field

Labored in a Minnesota mine

I've seen your hungry babies scream, I watched their mamas cry

Seen a worn-out prostitute beg for a dime

I've seen men come out of gutters, ready to give their lives away

For a slug at a lousy bottle of rot gut wine

[Repeat first verse]

• Artist:Townes Van Zandt