Songtext New cut road Steve Earle

New cut road

Coleman Bonner was a fiddle playing fool
A backwoods rounder and a breaker of mules
Coleman Bonner's got a wore out bow
He's been playing two days down the new cut road

Coleman's little sister said you better act right Coleman
Daddy's gone to Louisville he'll be back tonight
He's going to get another wagon and a good pair of mules
And we going to move to Texas we just waiting on you

Coleman's daddy, he pulled up in the yard
He said pack up you lives kids it's getting to hard
Kentucky's alright but there's too many people
Just the other day I thought I saw a church steeple

Coleman said, daddy, don't you worry about me
I'm going to stay here in Kentucky till the day I dee
I'm going to drink that sour mash and race that mare
Gonna find that woman with the fox red hair

Y'all been moving west since the day you go married
Well I'm getting off the wagon, daddy, I'm too old to be carried
I'm going to stay here in Kentucky where the bluegrass grows
And I'm going to play it all night down the new cut road

Coleman's daddy said now what's it all coming to
Young people these days are just as stubborn as mules
You can't make him go, he's too old for that
It's that damned old fiddle and that bowler hat

Coleman's mama said, oh, let the boy stay
He's raised up solid and he can find his own way
But as for me, honey, I'm with you
I always thought Kentucky was just passing through

Coleman's little sister started in a crying
And his daddy shook his head for the very last time
Coleman's mama said, somebody's got to do it
There wouldn't be no Kentucky
Unless you didn't stick to it, Coleman

Coleman Bonner stood on the porch of that cabin
And watched em all go to Texas in a covered wagon
He pulled out his fiddle and rosined up his bow
And played a little tune called the New Cut Road!