James washed dishes at a barbecue place
Fifth Street downtown
He'd get his pay and go next door
To drink his money down
And I was just getting started
Playing guitar when I met him there
I'd finish a song he'd clap his hands
No one else would but he didn't care
He'd yell out play Whiskey River
And I'd play it as best I could
I'd take a break and he'd say, man
You're really sounding good
I shook his rough dishwashing hands
As he said his name was James
He'd go back to playing that pool
Every evening the same old thing
He was drinking away every single dollar
I'd play the songs that he'd holler
He'd clap his hands and make everybody smile
No wife, no kids, just a job in Austin
No telling all that drinking cost him
I haven't seen James in a while
I haven't seen James in a while
James would ask the bartender
For a ride home now and then
He said he lived a few blocks down
At the Capitol Inn
The bartender dropped him off
But James walked right on past
He didn't quit walking 'til he laid down
Beneath a busy underpass
He was drinking away every single dollar
I'd play the songs that he'd holler
He'd clap his hands and make everybody smile
No wife, no kids, just a job in Austin
No telling all that drinking cost him
I haven't seen James in a while
I haven't seen James in a while
James got drunker than usual
And ended up in jail
The owner of the barbecue place
Came down and paid his bail
When they got back to the place
She said, "now James I got to let you go"
James walked out that door forever
And the rest nobody knows
He'd been drinking away every single dollar
I'd play the songs that he'd holler
He'd clap his hands and make everybody smile
No wife, no kids, no job in Austin
One more thing that the drinking's cost him
I haven't seen James in a while
I haven't seen James in a while
