Great Americana Lines

Ever heard a great line in a song and thought: “Gee I wish I had come up with that!”

Americana Music is jam-packed with such lines and Crossroads has compiled some of the best. Such lines often open songs, while others provide a nice closure. But mostly they are buried somewhere within a wonderful composition.

There is no ranking , though obviously the classic lines always spring to mind first!

This list does not include any lyrics from the incomparable Bob Dylan. The Nobel Laureate deserves a list all of his own.

If I can just get off this L.A. freeway/ Without getting killed or caught

Guy Clark – L.A. Freeway

There’s a hole in daddy’s arm/ Where all the money goes

John Prine – Sam Stone

I volunteered for the army on my birthday/ They draft the white trash first round here anyway

Steve Earle - Copperhead Road

And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad/ So I had one more for dessert

Kris Kristofferson - Sunday Morning Coming Down

If dreams were lightning/Thunder were desire/ This old house would have burned down a long time ago

John Prine - Angel from Montgomery

If it rained an ocean/ I’d drink it dry

Townes Van Zandt - Rex’s Blues

This old town’s filled with sin/ It will swallow you in

Chris Hillman/Gram Parsons - Sin City

I have seen the David/ I've seen the Mona Lisa too/ And I have heard Doc Watson play Columbus Stockade Blues

Guy Clark - Dublin Blues

Flipped into the wind/ Like the ashes of her cigarette

Buddy Mondlock - Coming Down in the Rain

We’re picking our words/ So we won’t have to eat them

Billy Joe Shaver - (We are) The Cowboys

I’d walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham/ If I thought I could see your face

Emmylou Harris/Bill Danoff - Boulder to Birmingham

He cooks the crystal meth ‘cause the shine don’t sell/ He likes his money he don’t mind the smell

James McMurtry - Choctaw Bingo

People call me the Picasso of painting the town

Chris Stapleton - Up to No Good Livin’

Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life/ End over end neither left nor to right

Paul Craft - Drop Kick Me Jesus

She said if you’re from Texas son where’s your boots and where’s your guns/ I smiled and said I’ve got guns no one can see

Butch Hancock - She Never Spoke Spanish to Me

Send lawyers, guns and money/ The shit has hit the fan

Warren Zevon - Lawyers, Guns and Money

Hey, mister, can you tell me, where a man might find a bed?/
He just grinned and shook my hand, "No" was all he said.

Robbie Robertson - The Weight

My oh my how those eagles fly/ Goodbye bottom dollar goodbye

Billy Joe Shaver - Bottom Dollar

The dust that Pancho bit down South/ Ended up in Lefty’s mouth

Townes Van Zandt - Pancho and Lefty

Just ask the boy from Tupelo/ He’s the king and he ought to know

Emmylou Harris - Boy from Tupelo

He was standing by the highway/ With a sign that just said mother

Gordon Lightfoot - Ten Degrees and Getting Colder

I killed a boy the other night who’d never even shaved/ I don’t know what I’m fighting for I ain’t never owned a slave

Steve Earle - Ben McCulloch

They’ll cut down the trees and name your new streets/ Hickory, walnut and pine

Slaid Cleaves/Nathan Hamilton - Hickory

Did you ever see Dallas from a DC-9 at night/ Well Dallas is a jewel, Dallas is a beautiful sight

Jimmie Dale Gilmour - Dallas

Sleeping late on Sundays and we never got to mass/ It’s a long way from Clare to here

Ralph McTell - From Clare to Here

I must have got lost in the backyard/ When I went out to play

James McMurtry - Lost in the Backyard

Like a lighthouse you must stand alone/ Landmark a sailor’s journeys end

Rodney Crowell - Till I Gain Control Again

If I was Roy Rogers I’d sure enough be single/ I couldn’t bring myself to marrying old Dale

Lyle Lovett - If I had a Boat

I’ve been smoking dope, snorting coke, trying to write a song/ Forgetting everything I know ‘til the next line comes along

Peter Rowan - Lonesome L.A. Cowboy

One of the boys in Eddie’s band took a shine to Rita’s hand/ So Eddie ran off with the bass man’s wife

Nanci Griffith - Love at the Five and Dime

I pulled that glass across his neck as fine as any blade/ And I felt his blood run fast and hot around me where I laid

Gillian Welch/David Rawlings – Caleb Meyer

The devil made me do it the first time/ The second time I done it on my own

Billy Joe Shaver - Black Rose

Old People just grow lonesome/ Waiting for someone to say “hello in there, hello”

John Prine - Hello in There

I don’t need to read the papers or the tea leaves to understand/

That his world’s been shaved by a drunken barber’s hand

Slaid Cleaves/Ro Picott - Drunken Barber’s Hand

I may be as ugly as an old mud-rail fence/ But I'm loaded with hillbilly charm

Billy Joe Shaver - Ragged Old Truck

You never touched the whisky you never took the pills/ I travelled for a million miles while you were standing still

Rossane Cash/John Leventhal - Etta’s Tune

But fame doesn’t take away the pain it just pays the bills/ And you wind up on alcohol and pills

Fred Eaglesmith - Alcohol & Pills

Screamin’ in a mic, playin’ a Strat through a Vox AC-30/ Gives a troublesome back and a ringin’ in ears

Ray Wylie Hubbard - Tell the Devil I’m Getting There as Fast as I Can

If I'd fucked her before she got sick/ I'd never hear the end of it

Jason Isbell - Elephant

Fenced yards ain't hole cards and like as not never will be/ Reason for rhymers and old five and dimers like me

Billy Joe Shaver - Ol Five and Dimers

The stranger went free of course/ For you can’t hang a man for killin’ a woman who’s tryin’ to steal your horse

Carl Stutz/Edith Lindeman - Red Headed Stranger

Now I’m going back on that same train that brought me here before/ While my baby walks the streets of Baltimore

Harlan Howard/Tompall Glaser - Streets of Baltimore

I will know my saviour when I come to him/ By the mark where the nails have been

Gilliam Welch/ David Rawlings - By The Mark

For your love it has run out of time dear/ And forever has come to an end

Julie Miller - Forever Has Come to an End

The help she didn't know what to do/ She just stood there and she watched him turn blue

Lyle Lovett - Last of the Family Reserve

When they talk about her she’s one in a million/ And when they introduce her she’s Mrs Hank Williams

Fred Eaglesmith - Mrs Hank Williams

At my age I should've figured out/ Which drawer to put the good knives in

Jason Isbell - Tupelo

You better do what you're told/ When I get back this room better be picked-up

Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

They drove all the way from Fort Worth to Amarillo/ When Milly woke up she had makeup all over her pillow

Fred Eaglesmith - Milly’s Cafe

Love turns to lust/ Chrome to rust

Slaid Cleaves/Rod Picott - Primer Gray

And ol' one-eyed John said her name was Alice/ And she used to be a whore in Dallas

Guy Clark - Let Him Roll

With bugs on her headlights and runs in her hose/ Through the valley of the shadow of Roosevelt's nose

Emmlou Harris/Paul Kennerley - The Balla of Sally Rose

Your R&B records your music books/ Your sense of humour and your rugged good looks

Lucinda Williams - Little Angel, Little Brother

In her hand when she died was a note that cried/ Fare thee well Tecumseh Valley

Townes Van Zandt - Tecumseh Valley

I've been so lonesome/ I made Hank Williams look like a party of five

Fred Eaglesmith - Trucker Speed

St. Genevieve can hold back the water/ Saints don't bother with the tear stained eye

Jay Farrar - Tear Stained Eye

Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears/ While we all sup sorrow with the poor

Stephen Foster – Hard Times Come Again No More

And my hands hurt from playing my guitar/ Every night at all those bars/ We played like we were stars

Fred Eaglesmith - Stars

He fell off his tractor up under the wheel/ And now his head shaped like a tread/ But he ain't quite dead

Tracy Schwarz - Poor Old Dirt Farmer

If I only had a dollar for every song I sung/ And every time I had to play while people sat there drunk

John Fogerty - Lodi

And this old porch is like a steaming greasy plate of enchiladas/ With lots of cheese and onions and a guacamole salad

Lyle Lovett/Robert Earl Keen - This Old Porch

Who were you thinking of when we were making love last night/ Was it a good-looking stranger or a close friend of mine

Cathie Pelletier/Jim Glaser/Paul Gauvin - Who Were You Thinking Of

I’m going down to the Greyhound station/ Going to take a ticket to ride/ Going to find that lady with two or three kids and sit down by her side

Blaze Foley - Clay Pigeons

I’ve been left for dead before but I still fight on/ Don’t wait up leave the light on/ I’ll be home soon

Chris Smither - Leave the Light On

They've never known want, they'll never know need/ Their shit don't stink and their kids won't bleed

James McMurtry - We Can’t Make It Here Anymore

I might have heard the highway call/ Geese in flight and dogs that bite

James Taylor - Carolina In My Mind

If you'll be my Dixie chicken I'll be your Tennessee lamb/ And we can walk together down in Dixieland

Lowell George/Fred Martin - Dixie Chicken

Well the evidence is clear gonna let the sentence son fit the crime/ Prison for ninety eight and a year and we'll call it even Johnny 99

Bruce Springsteen – Johnny 99

Lord, I'm goin' uptown to the Harlem River to drown/ Dirty water gonna cover me over and I'm not gonna make a sound

Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues

Rifles and rosary beads/ You hold on to what you need

Mary Gauthier - Rifles and Rosary Beads

Well summer is over/ The turnstiles are seized/ The Ferris wheel turns by itself in the breeze

Fred Eaglesmith - Summer is Over

Well sloe gin fizz works mighty fast/ When you drink it by the pitcher not by the glass

Loretta Lynn - Portland, Oregon

The camera loves you/ And so do I/ Click

Gordie Sampson/Guy Clark - My Favourite Picture of You

Air miles are owing/ But they don’t come for free

Mark Knopfler - All the Road Running

Call him drunken Ira Hayes he won't answer anymore/ Not the whiskey-drinking Indian or the marine that went to war

Peter La Farge - The Ballad of Ira Hayes

Now Kenny’s been mixing sound all evening/ Sometimes I think that boy he ain’t got no ears

Lyle Lovett - Closing Time

The Buck starts here with Hank sure to follow/ Turn him up loud and clear/ He's singin' my sorrow

Robbie Fulks - The Buck Starts Here

Her little feet as cold as ice in the middle of the night/ That’s not my problem anymore

Russell Smith - That’s Not My Problem Anymore

The buskers all sing the same tune/ It’s Waltzing Matilda while the bagpipes play old Clair De Lune

Tom Russell – St Olav’s Gate

But when the party’s over and he’s played his last refrain/ It ain’t just words and music/ It’s autographs in the rain

Kinky Friedman - Autographs in the Rain (Song to Willie)

Pushing up daisies out there on the hill/ It’s the last thing that I’ll ever do

Gary Scruggs/John Hadley/Kevin Welch - Pushing Up Daisies

Folks say he’s a hero but he’ll tell you he ain’t/ He left a hero in the jungle back in 1968

Dave Alvin/Chris Gaffney - 1968

Oh I miss being Mrs tonight

Loretta Lynn - Miss being Mrs

There's nothin' like lying in a graveyard/ To teach you to hold your tongue

Chris Smither - What They Say

But this year I'm queasy about Presidents' Day/ There’s a nut job in the White House I’m so sorry to say

Loudon Wainwright III - President’s Day

Who's gonna care for the ones who care for the ones who went to war/ There's landmines in the living room and eggshells on the floor

Mary Gauthier - The War After the War

Now mister the day the lottery I win/ I ain't ever gonna ride in no used car again

Bruce Springsteen - Used Cars

You've broken the speed of the sound of loneliness/ You're out there running just to be on the run

John Prine - Sound of the Speed of Loneliness

Out with the truckers and the kickers and the cowboy angels/ And a good saloon in every single town

Gram Parsons & Thomas Brown - Return of the Grievous Angel

You’re not making conversation honey/ You’re only measuring words

Jimmy LaFave - Measuring Words

I brought along our little babies ‘cause I wanted them to see/ The woman that’s burning down our family tree

Loretta Lynn - Family Tree

He waits alone in heaven's shadow/With a stolen horse and tequila tears

Ray Wylie Hubbard – Loco Gringo's Lament

Now we go our separate ways/ Mr and Mrs used to be

John Prine - Mr and Mrs Used To Be

Tonight I’ll bet it all on the fighting spurs of Gallo Del Cielo/ Then I’ll return to buy the land that Villa stole from father long ago

Tom Russell – Gallo Del Cielo

And the girl passed out in the backseat trash/ There was no way they'd make even a half a tank of gas

Gillian Welch/David Rawlings – April the 14th, Part 1

And the years are gambled and lost/ Like Summer wages

Ian Tyson – Summer Wages

Marie she didn’t wake up this morning/ She didn’t even try/ She just rolled over and went to heaven/ My little boy safe inside

Townes Van Zandt – Marie

So she loads her mother’s pistol/ And shoots him as he whistles/ A song about a sailor’s life in style

John Grimaudo/Saylor White – Dress of Laces

I feel like Garbo in this late night Grande hotel/ Cause living alone is all I’ve ever done well

Nancy Griffith – Late Night Grande Hotel

If the ladies were squirrels with high bushy tails/I'd fill up my shotgun with rock salt and nails

Bruce "Utah" Phillips - Rock, Salt and Nails

Crossroads respects all creative copyright by songwriters and performers and lyrics and recordings are used for review purposes only.

All factual errors and omissions are regretted.