Red Dirt Road

Country music is not my favorite music. I have no dislike of it. In reality I was raised listening almost exclusively to it with my father. I was able to see many of the old time country music greats (George Jones, Bill Anderson, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Buck Owens, Carl Smith, Loretta Lynn, Kitty Wells, the list could on) in the mid 60's live with my Mom and Dad.

Now, I am just basically a rock and roll fan.

That being said, I think country musicians are the best story tellers as song writers. (I write that in spite of the old joke about backward masking country music getting your truck, girl, and dog back.) In my opinion, the only music to come close was the old R&B in the late 60's and early 70's. There were some great stories woven in there as well!

Two years ago, while on my flight to Africa, I came across a song by the country duet Brooks and Dunn. The song gripped me like only a song can do. It held my attention the entire flight over on the in-seat music programming, and did the same on the return flight. That song is entitled Red Dirt Road. It tells the story of an aspect of the author's childhood and his outlook on life. In many respects it could be my story. (Full lyrics are below.)

This weekend I will be driving to North Carolina, where I was born to perform my baby brother's wedding. (He is 46 years old.) I will be traveling with my grandson Gavin. He and I have made this trip a couple of times now. I left NC in 1976 at the age of 22 and have never lived there since. It is still HOME in many respects. And for the first time last fall, I felt a tinge of homesickness on a return trip. Many things played into it, at that time, but feel it I did.

As I thought about that experience, and my song experience with Red Dirt Road, I tied it to something I have been trying to do for some time. I have been wanting to get a tattoo. I have wanted one that connected me with my heritage as a southerner. In my later years, I am more proud of that than I have ever been. Over the last decade I had many ideas of what the tattoo should be, but nothing fit or it could have been misconstrued and been offensive to someone. Thus it never happened. But now it will. I have chosen what the tattoo will be. (I am not about to tell you what it is now!) I am making plans for my tattoo and preparing to visit my old stomping grounds. It will for me be a Red Dirt Road sort of experience.

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Red Dirt Road
by Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn

I was raised off of Route Three
Out where the blacktop ends.
We'd walk to Church on Sunday mornings,
Race barefoot back to Johnson's fence.
That's where I first saw Mary,
On that roadside pickin' blackberries.
That summer I turned a corner in my soul,
Down that red dirt road.

It's where I drank my first beer.
It's where I found Jesus.
Where I wrecked my first car: I tore it all to pieces.
I learned the path to Heaven,
Is full of sinners an' believers.
Learned that happiness on earth,
Ain't just for high achievers.
I've learned; I come to know,
There's life at both ends,Of that red dirt road.

Her Daddy didn't like me much,
In my shackled up GTO.
Oh, I'd sneak out in the middle of the night,
Throw rocks at her bedroom window.
We'd turn out the headlights,
Drive by the moonlight.
Talk about what the future might hold,
Down that red dirt road.It's where I drank my first beer.

It's where I found Jesus.
Where I wrecked my first car:I tore it all to pieces.
I learned the path to Heaven,
Is full of sinners an' believers.
Learned that happiness on earth,
Ain't just for high achievers.
I've learned; I come to know,
There's life at both ends,
Of that red dirt road.

I went out into the world,
An' I came back in.
I lost Mary: Oh, I got her back again.
An' drivin' home tonight,
Feels like I've found a long-lost friend.

It's where I drank my first beer.
It's where I found Jesus.
Where I wrecked my first car:I tore it all to pieces.
I learned the path to Heaven,
Is full of sinners an' believers.
Learned that happiness on earth,
Ain't just for high achievers.
I've learned; I come to know,
There's life at both ends,
Of that red dirt road.