Tennessee Stud - Michael Martin Murphey

Along about eighteen twenty-five

I left Tennessee very much alive

I never would have got through the Arkansas mud

If I hadn’t been a-ridin' on the Tennessee Stud

I had some trouble with my sweetheart’s pa

And one of her brothers was a bad outlaw

I sent her a letter by my Uncle Bud

And I rode away on the Tennessee Stud

The Tennessee Stud was long and lean

The color of the sun, and his eyes were green

He had the nerve and he had the blood

And there never was a horse like the Tennessee Stud

One day I was riding in a beautiful land

I run smack into an Indian band

They jumped their nags with a whoop and a yell

And away we rode like a bat out of hell

I circled their camp for a time or two

Just to show what a Tennessee horse can do

The redskin boys couldn’t get my blood

'Cause I was a-riding on the Tennessee Stud

We drifted on down into no man’s land

We crossed that river called the Rio Grande

I raced my horse with the Spaniard’s foal

'Til I got me a skin full of silver and gold

Me and a gambler, we couldn’t agree

We got in a fight over Tennessee

We jerked our guns, and he fell with a thud

And I got away on the Tennessee Stud

I got just as lonesome as a man can be

Dreamin' of my girl in Tennessee

The Tennessee Stud’s green eyes turned blue

'Cause he was a-dreamin' of a sweetheart, too

We loped right back across Arkansas;

I whupped her brother and I whupped her pa

I found that girl with the golden hair

And she was a-riding on the Tennessee Mare

Stirrup to stirrup and side by side

We crossed the mountains and the valleys wide

We came to Big Muddy, then we forded the flood

On the Tennessee Mare and the Tennessee Stud

A pretty little baby on the cabin floor

A little horse colt playing 'round the door

I love that girl with the golden hair

And the Tennessee Stud loves the Tennessee Mare