nashville

I'm heading off to Nashville this Sunday with the Central debate folks for leg two of the MBA-KCC excange. There'll be a public debate and a picnic and a generallly awesome time had by all. This whole experience has been incredible for me. I hope it has been for the guys as well. I wish more schools would do this. It's like future leaders of the world meeting before the future has arrived.

I've been to Nashville a few times. Seems like a very cool town. First time I went I checked out the Grand Ol' Opry. The show we watched was sponsored by Joggin' in a Jug. There was this fast-talking guy saying how much Joggin in a Jug will do for my old constitution that I was like, Dang! I gotta get some a that!! But after that I traveled all through the South for two weeks and I couldn't find it anywhere. I'm still kinda miffed.

Nashville's downtown and the area around Vanderbilt University seem pretty cosmopolitan, in an expensive blue jean sort of way. Seems to me they're a notch or two above KC in the hip meter. Course, we got no stars, and they got tons, even if they're all country, 'cept for Al.

I found the picture above when I Googled "Nashville Joe." Of course as soon as I saw it I had a song by one of my all-time favs, Johnny Horton, ringing in my head:

Cotton Eyed Joe, better git yer britches on
Cotton Eyed Joe better tie yer shoes

Then I went I got stuck on the next line and went to look it up and saw -- duh! -- it's Sleepy Eyed John:

Well a way down yonder on the Candy Creek
I whittled out a fiddle from a wagon seat.
I tuned my fiddle and I rubbed my bow
Play a little tune wherever I go.

(chorus)

Sleepy-eyed John, you better your britches on
Sleepy-eyed John, you better tie your shoe.
Sleepy-eyed John, you better get your britches on
Try to get to heaven 'fore the Devil gets to you.

Well, Sleepy-eyed John he stole a goose
The goose she clucked but she couldn't get loose.
Said John to the goose "If you don't be still,
Well miss our supper down in Candyville."

(chorus)

Well Sleepy-eyed John he had a wooden leg.
The wooden leg was nothing but a little wooden peg.
With one shoe off and one shoe on
He'll do the double shuffle 'till the cows come home.

(chorus)

Now I got twenty dollars for to build a fence
I took my money and I ain't worked since.
Sold my buggy and I sold my plow
I wouldn't take a dollar for my journey now.

(chorus)

Well over the hickory and down the pine
The racoon left and the old hound whined.
John said "Sic 'em" and the racoon left
They crossed Green River in a minute and a half.

(chorus)

Good tune. Ebony and Geoffery go wild every time I play it.