This songs sets the tone for The Dirty South and never lets up. I can remember my second DBT show, it was at a crappy club in Harrisburg, PA in May 2008. The band came onstage in the dark, you could see Cooley's skinny silhouette smoking a cigarette and taking a long drink from the bottle of Jack. Through the cigarette smoke I heard the opening drumbeat and chords of this song. I was dumbfounded, wow, about all I could do was stand there and watch. I was by the stage right next to a monster speaker and I think my ears are still ringing. For the usual reasons most of that night is now a blur, but I'll never forget the moment of that song. This one's on the Mt Rushmore of Cooley songs.



My Daddy played poker on a stump in the woods back in his younger days
Prohibition was the talk, but the rich folks walked to the woods where my Daddy stayed
Jugs and jars from shiners, these old boys here, they ain't miners
They came from the twenty-niners
It didn't take a hole in the ground to put the bottom in their face

Back in the thirties when the dust bowl dried
And the woods in Alabama didn't see no light
My Daddy played poker by a hard wood fire
Squeezing all his luck from a hot copper wire
Scrap like a wildcat fights till the end
Trap a wildcat and take his skin
Deal from the bottom, put the ace in the hole
One hand on the jug but you never do know

Son come running
You better come quick
This rotgut moonshine is making me sick
Your Mama called the law and they're gonna take me away
Down so far even the Devil won't stay
Where I call to the Lord with all my soul
I can hear him rattling the chains on the door
He couldn't get in I could see he tried
Through the shadows of the cage around the forty watt light

Daddy tell me another story
Tell me about the lows and the highs
Tell me how to tell the difference between what they tell me is the truth or a lie
Tell me why the ones who have so much make the ones who don't go mad
With the same skin stretched over their white bones and the same jug in their hand

My Daddy played poker on a stump in the woods back when the world was gray
Before black and white went and chose up sides and gave a little bit of both their way
The only blood that's any cleaner is the blood that's blue or greener
Without either you just get meaner and the blood you gave gives you away

Great tune. Couldn't agree more that the opening drum and then chords just blow you away. I took a friend to his first show, and to get him prepped I threw in TDS. As soon as that came on, he said, "Alright, I am going to have a goddamn good time tonight." And of course, he did.

The lyrics are pretty close to were my Daddy grew up!!! so I do have a little old fashion sentiment for this tune!!!

Fun to play on guitar too. One of my all-time favorite Cooley songs.

Love love love this song - the only song I really miss Isbell's playing live.

That show was great. Same here Clams, I don't remember much. I know it was the first time I ever saw the Dexateens. One of my favorite Colley songs. Looking forward to New Years Day.

Heard this at my first DBT show well before the song was released and just remember thinking what an awesome song it was and hoping it would be on their next album. Have to agree with Smitty that this is one of the few songs where I do miss Jason's playing live.

I don't understand why Neff doesn't play Isbell's guitar lick when they do it live

One of those songs that just knocks you on your ass the first time you hear it.

Iowan wrote:One of those songs that just knocks you on your ass the first time you hear it.

...and every time onward as well....

That was the first DBT song I ever heard (listening to The Dirty South on spec after I read a review somewhere.

That first ten seconds is what grabbed me by the throat, and hasnt let go yet.

Zip City wrote:I don't understand why Neff doesn't play Isbell's guitar lick when they do it live

Me either

'Scratch wrote:Fun to play on guitar too. One of my all-time favorite Cooley songs.

It is fun on guitar. Great, great song. The lyrics paint this amazing backdrop to the story with just little bits of detail on top. Oh and the music just kicks you in the ass. In my top 5 Cooley songs.

I'd like to read Cooley's uncle Ed(?)'s original poem that this is based on

Is there a Wes Freed portrait of the poker game in the woods? If not, there should be.

And what exactly is meant by "It didn't take a hole in the ground to put the bottom in their face"?

Clams wrote:Is there a Wes Freed portrait of the poker game in the woods? If not, there should be.

And what exactly is meant by "It didn't take a hole in the ground to put the bottom in their face"?

Revenuers, a lot of moonshiners were shot on site!!! If not they had everything destroyed and buried right in front of their faces.

But I am gong with shot on site, grave, buried face down in the ground. but tha is just my 2 cents

Smitty wrote:

Zip City wrote:I don't understand why Neff doesn't play Isbell's guitar lick when they do it live

Me either

Me three, but I'm glad Johnny put his own signature on it. It's really grown on me.

Smitty wrote:I'd like to read Cooley's uncle Ed(?)'s original poem that this is based on

wow, didn't know that...interesting. i'd love to read that, too

One of my top 3 DBT songs, as well as top 2 Cooley songs. It is also my cell phone ring. I triple check my cell phone to make sure it is off or on silent if I'm going to a show, I'd die if it rang and Cooley heard it!

This is the primary song that initially drew my interest with the band. A friend of mine gave me TDS, DD, SRO and BTCD to listen to and this one drew my immediate attention along with several others but this one stood out. He gave them to me b/c i had been bitching about how there wasn't much available out there in R&R that I really liked or could relate to - everything seemed meaningless and hollow that was in the mainstream. This is about three or four years ago now. In the meantime, everything in the mainstream just got worse IMO and the more I delved into the DBT catalogue and figured out the songs and the ideas they were conveying the more I began to relate to their music. But there was a period of time in which DBT had to grow on me before i began to fully appreciate what they do. At this point they are far and away my favorite band and this song is in part responsible for that.

Clams wrote:Is there a Wes Freed portrait of the poker game in the woods? If not, there should be.

And what exactly is meant by "It didn't take a hole in the ground to put the bottom in their face"?

I take it as either the way BC put it or more vaguely, they didn't need a mine to be down low (maybe passing out from drinking/just being bad)

I know this ain't what you had in mind, but pretty sure this is Freed's take on poker on a stump in the woods:

Love the opening bits of this song. Even thinking of it gives me goosebumps. But it's the guitar attacking crescendo that just fucking kills me. and lyrically, it's a fuckin mona lisa.
One of the greatest moments ever was seeing this live for the first time at the Pageant. I was at the bar...and well...the rest of that story doesn't matter much now, but I was mesmerised.

Clams wrote:This songs sets the tone for The Dirty South and never lets up. I can remember my second DBT show, it was at a crappy club in Harrisburg, PA in May 2008. The band came onstage in the dark, you could see Cooley's skinny silhouette smoking a cigarette and taking a long drink from the bottle of Jack. Through the cigarette smoke I heard the opening drumbeat and chords of this song. I was dumbfounded, wow, about all I could do was stand there and watch. I was by the stage right next to a monster speaker and I think my ears are still ringing. For the usual reasons most of that night is now a blur, but I'll never forget the moment of that song. This one's on the Mt Rushmore[/i]

Just re visiting some old tracks, since the pickings are getting slim. The crappy club you are referring to is the Dragonfly Club, which closed for good last May after two stabbings in a three week period. I remember contemplating seeing this show as I already owned Dirty South and Gangstabilly, but I was not yet consumed by the Truckers and I would not have been able to bring my oldest son who was not yet 21. After reading your account of Devil Don't Stay, I'm pretty sad I missed this one. And, to think, the Dexateens were the opener. This is now my dream show and it was right down the street.

Scrap like a wildcat fights to the end
Trap a wildcat and take his skin

Those lines are so catchy!

When I first became DBT curious I ordered SRO and loved it. A while later after I saw my first DBT show (Charlotesville) in September of 2008, and I believe it was around this time when I got Dirty South and heard where the Devil Don't Stay and was blown away.

I recently introduced a cousin-in-law (not inbreeding...just my cousin's husband) to DBT, and he told me that when he listens to them, he feels "tough". That's exactly the way this song makes me feel. I'm sitting at my desk wearing a shirt and tie right now, but just thinking of the words makes me believe I could be out in the woods somewhere puttin' shine in mason jars!

Just writing that makes me need to wet my whistle, so to speak! Mmm! Peach creek water, as we call it where I'm from!

I always loved the "hole in the ground" part, and I thought it involved getting shot (or killed) but wasn't really sure of the specifics. One of the things I've always really admired about Cooley (and Patterson and any good poet) is his ability to say things in such a way as to make their meanings slightly subtle while using his words to paint a picture. I can see the scene in the woods when I listen to the song.

So many DBT songs do this, but I love the way Cooley conveys such urgency and need in this one; his voice just pleads with the listener. "Son come runnin!'"

I'm not really sure why I even started writing on this song, beucase my words could never do it justice!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The "Daddy tell me a little story" section is my favorite. It just feels like a pressure cooker until he gets back to "My daddy played poker by a stump...." verse

Fool No Where wrote:

Smitty wrote:

Zip City wrote:I don't understand why Neff doesn't play Isbell's guitar lick when they do it live

Me either

Me three, but I'm glad Johnny put his own signature on it. It's really grown on me.

Have always wondered myself, but it's probably a feeling that "Jason owns that slide part" - some sort of Gunslinger Code of Conduct. I miss that part live to this day, but I understand - and Neff is so unreal in every aspect of his playing that it's tough to complain about that one missing piece.

I was at that 2008 Harrisburg show. And man did that club ever suck. Harrisburg seemed like a nifty little town, but that had to be one of the worst places I've ever seen a show.

sg207 wrote:I was at that 2008 Harrisburg show. And man did that club ever suck. Harrisburg seemed like a nifty little town, but that had to be one of the worst places I've ever seen a show.

I never went into the Dragonfly, though I've seen it from the outside many times. It was the closest thing Harrisburg had to an Underground/Subculture movement. It was leather, screamo, hard core along with Slipknot tribute bands. Aside from DBT, there was never another band who played there that I would consider seeing, mostly because I was too old and too conservative for that stuff. I'll stick with the Abby Bar, the York Strand, and the Whitaker Center which will have a class act like Steve Earle, Carolina Choclate Drops or Lucinda Williams.