Jimmy Martin And The Death Of

Jimmy Martin : Truck Driver's Queen

Jimmy Martin: Ocean of Diamonds

Jimmy Martin: Lost Highway

Tom Russell: The Death of Jimmy Martin


there's a hound dog running all alone through the piney woods
his howling tears the soul out of me
there's a jaybird calling out a funeral dirge
in ancient harmony
Barb'ry Allen rolled over in a grave all morning
with roses growing out of her head
hey God's gonna burn down Nashville boys
'cause Jimmy Martin's dead
the great Jimmy Martin's gone dead

you got twenty-twenty vision but you're walking 'round blind
you Grand Ole Opry fools
with your hypocritic judgments and your self-righteous snobbery
your goddamned false-hearted rules
you scorned Hank Williams
you shunned Jimmy Martin
boys who sang with tongues on fire
so God's gonna burn down your Grand Ole Opry
hear the screams of the hypocrites and liars
they feel safer now that Jimmy has expired

run Pete run, your master's calling you
he's waiting on up ahead
don't look back, Nashville's burning down
Jimmy Martin's dead
the great Jimmy Martin's gone dead

don't call me no country singer
those are poison words to me
'cause i ain't heard a good country song
since 1973
the King of Bluegrass has died for your sins
the Whore of Babylon is sleeping in your bed
so God's gonna burn down Nashville boys
'cause Jimmy Martin's dead
the great Jimmy Martin's gone dead

run Pete run, your master's calling you
he's waiting on up ahead
don't look back, Nashville's burning down
Jimmy Martin's dead
the great Jimmy Martin's gone dead

there's a hound dog running all alone through the piney woods
the howling tears the soul out of me...

--Tom Russell
The Death of Jimmy Martin