A sample of some obscure – and maybe not obscure – tunes from my strange and off-the-wall collection.

Today’s selection: James McMurtry “Vague Directions” – 1990

James McMurtry (1962 – ) is the son of the author of Lonesome Dove.

This place you say you’re looking for
That’s a place I used to know
Don’t know the number of the road
But I can tell you how to go

Head on down ’till the pavement ends
Used to go back there now and then
I used to know it like the back of my hand
When I was just a boy

This place you say you’re looking for
It’s a good ways off the track
It’d take a quarter tank of Firechief
Just getting there and back

And of course there wasn’t no pavement then
Once you got yourself around that bend
There wasn’t nothing but the whistling wind
When I was just a boy

And the light shines long ago
On the cold December snow
And the river runs on through the (golden) past
I can see it in the bottom of the (whiskey) glass

Ain’t seen you around here before
You kin to someone I know
What was your mama’s name
Before she moved away

Did she tell you about that place up there
Did she show you how to curl that hair
A grown man would have never dared
When I was just a boy

This place you say you’re looking for
Might have washed out with the rain
It might not be there anymore
It might not be the same

But if you find it won’t you let me know
If I weren’t so poorly I’d surely go
Don’t you know I used to love it so
When I was just a boy

It’s not a road anymore, just a path through the woods that have taken over.
The old bridge is washed out near where we used to park and …
Even the abutments are gone.

For that matter, so’s the bar with the whiskey glass.

And so is she … and her name gone with her.
From when I was just a boy.