Vodpod videos no longer available.

(Dad on the left, with Eric Surette on the right)

There’s a song he’s been singing for the past three years or more

About his old horse and waggon and some Puerto Rican whore

Well, I don’t always know what he’s thinking when he downs that seventy-four

But a look in his eyes always gives him away and he’s a damn good friend for sure

Oh, hey Joe! Make that old Jew’s Harp go!

I’ll be joinin’ you in the tavern in a half an hour or so

I’ll bring along my guitar and you bring along your soul

and into the night we’ll be feelin’ alright

We’ll play all the songs that we know

He’s movin’ it down the Greenville Road in that old ’47 Dodge

Truckin’ a load of timber to some Fundy seaside lodge

He’s whistlin’ away a highway tune, hopin’ hat he’ll be home soon

Well, it’s old dirt roads and songs that got soul, that’s how I best know Joe

He’s got a fine old horse named Tony and he knows about Gee and Haw

But the man from the Welfare couldn’t quite believe what he saw

“Who’s that man living in the teepee on the Surette’s Island shore?”

“Why, that’s my old pal Joe in his old dirty clothes, always one step ahead of the law!”

Oh, hey Joe! Make that old Jew’s Harp go!

I’ll be joinin’ you in the tavern in a half an hour or so

I’ll bring along my guitar and you bring along your soul

and into the night we’ll be feelin’ alright

We’ll play all the songs that we know

My dad’s never really told me anything about his life before I was around. What I know I either heard from my mom or my dad’s friends.

One of his friends, Bob Wallace, wrote this song for him, I think during the 70’s, and another friend, Eric Surette, recorded it in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1987.

It was a bit of a local hit when it first came out, he also made a recording of it in French. I’ve always appreciated the glimpse it’s given me into some of the conditions of my own arising. I’d love to sit down with a voice recorder someday and get my dad to tell his whole story, in detail…