Out On The Highway

out on the highway son be careful



your mother sure loves you



smell of liquor and gasoline



you knew then what you were born to do



they put Roosevelt in office



they took the farm the family had to go



we don't have to do much farming



for the corn mash, or the copper, or the oak trees



two years ago this april



'bout the time when he made that first run



it was just to Carolina



but I was thinking this awful thing I'd done



back home in Kentucky it was sundown



when he slipped right through the door



and he was wide eyed and sweaty



and he said he would be ready by the mornin'



we made whiskey in the morning



we made whiskey morning, noon, and night



when you were at home it was the only sleep



your mother got at night



she'd just sit there by the window



crying boy oh when you comin' home



at night I see her there on her knees and in her prayers



she says oh Jesus don't leave us here alone



sixty miles an hour after midnight



you're o'er that county line



were patrol cars in the bushes



and they were waiting for just the right time



they turned the lights on in the curve



and the Plymouth started swerving left to right



and it sounded like a cannon



as the shotguns ripped apart the night



let his soul rest in Kentucky



where he won't have to be lucky anymore



I can still here him laughing



bout the police he outrun the night before



the bullets in his door



out on the highway son be careful



your mother sure loves you