Bobby Bare - 500 Miles Away From Home

I'm heading back to Austin from a couple of weeks back home with the family.  There's always a tug at the heartstrings when you point your wheels towards that distant horizon, and one of Country's greats - someone you may never have heard of - captured that looking back over your shoulder.

After he was discovered by Chet Atkins, Bobby Dare won won two Grammys and had a bunch of top 10 songs in the 1960s.  It's old school: no Patsy Cline "Countrypolitan" sophistication here, just working man's guitar and rhyme scheme.  Growing up, this was the Country music I hated.  Now, I appreciate how it captures a blue note from the days when men were expected to be men - to do what needed to be done, without complaining, or a publicist to get a slot on Oprah.

A lot of men had to travel far from their families to make a living.  Some still do.  Country music has some songs for them.



500 Miles Away From Home (Songwriter: Hedy West)

I'm five hundred miles away from home
Teardrops fell on mama's note,
when I read the things she wrote
She said "We miss you son, we love you, come on home"
Well I didn't have to pack, I had it all right on my back
Now I'm five hundred miles away from home

Away from home, away from home
Cold and tired and all alone
Yes I'm five hundred miles away from home

I know this is the same coat
I took when I left home
But it sure looks different now
And I guess I look different too
But time changes everything
I wonder what they'll say,
When they see their boy lookin' this way
Oh, I wonder what they'll say when I get home

Can't remember when I ate, it's just thumb and walk and wait
And I'm still five hundred miles away from home
If my love had been just right, I'd be with them all tonight
But I'm still five hundred miles away from home

Away from home, away from home
Cold and tired and all alone
Yes I'm five hundred miles away from home
Oh, I'm still five hundred miles away from home

(Photo source)