Along about 1825,
I left Tennessee very much alive.
I never would have got through the Arkansas mud
if I hadn't been riding on the Tennessee stud.
I had some trouble with my sweetheart's pa.
One of her brothers was a bad outlaw.
I sent her a letter by my Uncle Fudd,
and I rode away on the Tennessee stud.
The Tennessee stud was long and lean, the color
of the sun, and his eyes were green.
He had the nerve and he had the blood, and there
never was a horse like the Tennessee stud.
We drifted on down into no man's land.
We
crossed the river called the Rio Grande.
I raced my horse with a Spaniard's pole, till
I got me a skin full of silver and gold.
Me and a gambler, we couldn't agree.
We got in
a fight over Tennessee.
We jerked our guns,
he fell with a thud,
and I got away on the
Tennessee stud.
Well,
I got as lonesome as a man could be,
dreaming of my girl in Tennessee.
The Tennessee stud's green eyes turned blue,
cause he was a dreamin' of his sweetheart too.
We looked right on across Arkansas,
I whooped her brother and I whooped her pa.
I found that girl with the golden hair,
and she was a ridin' on the Tennessee mare.
The Tennessee stud was long and lean,
the color of the sun,
and his eyes were green.
He had the nerve and he had the blood,
and there never was a horse like the Tennessee
stud.
Stirrup to stirrup and side to side, we crossed
the mountains and the valleys wide.
We came to big muddy and we forded the flood
on the Tennessee mare and the Tennessee stud.
Pretty little baby on the cabin floor, a little
horse colt playin' round the door.
I loved the girl with the golden hair,
and the Tennessee
stud loves the Tennessee mare.
The Tennessee stud was long and lean,
the color of the sun,
and his eyes were green.
He had the nerve and he had the blood,
and there never was
a horse like the Tennessee stud.