Steve Earle - Copperhead Road

What do you get when you mix bluegrass and heavy metal?  Rolling Stone called it "Power Twang" after Steve Earle released his 1988 album "Copperhead Road".  This was the title track, named after the goings on that happened on a a Johnson County, TN road.  The road now is called "Copperhead Hollow Road" because the county was tired of replacing stolen street signs.

As with all Steve Earle songs he puts a lie to the phrase that all a song needs is "three chords and the truth".  Earle's irrepressible creativity can't be contained in only three chords.



Copperhead Road (Songwriter: Steve Earle):

Well my name's John Lee Pettimore
Same as my daddy and his daddy before
You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here
He only come to town about twice a year
He'd buy a hundred pound of yeast and some copper line
Everybody knew that he made moonshine

Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad
He headed up the holler with everything he had
It's before my time but I've been told
He never came back from Copperhead Road

Now Daddy ran the whiskey in a big block Dodge
Bought it at an auction at the Mason's Lodge
Johnson County Sheriff painted on the side
Just shot a coat of primer then he looked inside
Well him and my uncle tore that engine down
I still remember that rumblin' sound

Then the sheriff came around in the middle of the night
Heard mama cryin', knew something wasn't right
He was headed down to Knoxville with the weekly load
You could smell the whiskey burnin' down Copperhead Road

I volunteered for the Army on my birthday
They draft the white trash first, 'round here anyway
I done two tours of duty in Vietnam
And I came home with a brand new plan
I take the seed from Colombia and Mexico
I just plant it up the holler down Copperhead Road

And now the D.E.A.'s got a chopper in the air
I wake up screaming like I'm back over there
I learned a thing or two from Charlie don't you know
You better stay away from Copperhead Road

Copperhead Road
Copperhead Road
Copperhead Road