Ol' Red

Well, I caught my wife with another man

And it cost me 'ninety nine

On a prison farm in Georgia

Close to the Florida line

Well, I've been here for two long years

I finally made the warden, my friend

And so he sentenced me to a life of ease

Taking care of Ol' Red

Now, Ol' Red, he's the damnedest dog

That I've ever seen

Got a nose that can smell a two day trail

He's a four legged tracking machine

You can consider yourself mighty lucky

To get past the gators and the quicksand beds

But all these years that I've been here

Ain't nobody got past Red

And the warden sang

"Come on, somebody, why don't you run?"

"Ol' Red's itching to have a little fun"

"Get my lantern, get my gun"

"Red'll have you tree'd, 'fore the morning come"

Well, I paid off the guard and I slipped out a letter

To my cousin up in Tennessee

Oh, and he brought down a blue tick hound

She was pretty as she could be

Well, they penned her up in the swampland

'Bout a mile just south of the gate

And I'd take Ol' Red for his evening run

I'd just drop him off and wait

And the warden sang

"Come on, somebody, why don't you run?"

"Ol' Red's itching to have a little fun"

"Get my lantern, get my gun"

"Red'll have you tree'd, 'fore the morning come"

Now Ol' Red got real used to seeing

His lady every night

And so I kept him away for three or four days

And waited 'till the time got right

Well, I made my run with the evening sun

And I smiled when I heard him turn Red out

'Cause I was headed north to Tennessee

And Ol' Red was headed south

And the warden sang

"Come on, somebody, why don't you run?"

"Ol' Red's itching to have a little fun"

"Get my lantern, get my gun"

"Red'll have you tree'd, 'fore the morning come"

Now, there's red-haired blue ticks all in the South

Love got me in here, and love got me out