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She's good lookin' and I ain' frightened. Gonna show you why they call me lightnin'

with apologies to the Who, Johnny Cash and the Cars

My daddy left home when I was three
And he didn't leave much to ma and me
Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.
Now, I don't blame him cause he run and hid
But the meanest thing that he ever did
Was before he left, he went and named me "Lightning."

Well, he must o' thought that is quite a joke
And it got a lot of laughs from a' lots of folk,
It seems I had to fight my whole life through.
Some gal would giggle and I'd get red
And some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head,
I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named "Lightning."


Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean,
My fist got hard and my wits got keen,
I'd roam from town to town to hide my shame.
But I made a vow to the moon and stars
That I'd search the honky-tonks and bars
And kill that man who gave me that awful name.

Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July
And I just hit town and my throat was dry,
I thought I'd stop and have myself a brew.
At an old saloon on a street of mud,
There at a table, dealing stud,
Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me "Lightning."

Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad
From a worn-out picture that my mother'd had,
And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye.
He was big and bent and gray and old,
And I looked at him and my blood ran cold
And I said: "My name is 'Lightning!' How do you do!
Now your gonna die!!"

Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes
And he went down, but to my surprise,
He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear.
But I busted a chair right across his teeth
And we crashed through the wall and into the street
Kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer.

I tell ya, I've fought tougher men
But I really can't remember when,
He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile.
I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss,
He went for his gun and I pulled mine first,
He stood there lookin' at me and I saw him smile.

And he said: "Son, this world is rough
And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough
And I knew I wouldn't be there to help ya along.
So I give ya that name and I said goodbye
I knew you'd have to get tough or die
And it's the name that helped to make you strong."

He said: "Now you just fought one hell of a fight
And I know you hate me, and you got the right
To kill me now, and I wouldn't blame you if you do.
But ya ought to thank me, before I die,
For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye
Cause I'm the son-of-a-bitch that named you "Lightning.'"

I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
And I called him my pa, and he called me his son,
And I came away with a different point of view.
And I think about him, now and then,
Every time I try and every time I win,
And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him
Bill or George! Anything but Lightning! I still hate that name!

I don't mind you coming here
And wasting all my time
'Cause when you're standing oh so near
I kinda lose my mind
It's not the perfume that you wear
It's not the ribbons in your hair
I don't mind you coming here
And wasting all my time
I don't mind you hanging out
And talking in your sleep
It doesn't matter where you've been
As long as it was deep
You always knew to wear it well
You look so fancy i can tell
I don't mind you hanging out
And talking in your sleep
I guess you're just what i needed
I needed someone to feed
I guess you're just what i needed
I needed someone to bleed

What you gonna do when the lightning strikes and hits you
Who ya gonna call for the secret of stealing the world
Swimming in this ocean of words on your new cellphone
Diving for the wisdom of pearls in your eyes
What ya gonna do when the lightning strikes and hits you
How ya gonna laugh when the joker forgets his lines
Stepping off a cloud into space whatever greets you
Show me how you got this award for being alive
Waking up is waking to the power
Dancing up is dancing till the dawn
Talk talk talk will always get you someplace
Shake it up 'n' shake me till I'm done
Who ya gonna call when the power
Begins to chase you
Spinning out of shape now you're learning to live again
Fastening your seatbelt tonight it could get jumpy
Showing me the good 'n' that
Life is not in vain
Take take take 'n' take me thru the lightning
Walk don't talk me always on the run
Ride it out until you get the picture
Shake it up and let me get me some
Let me get me some
Eya he say touch it together
Touching my spirit touching my feeling
Talk, talk, talk, keep moving 'round in circles
Moving till the moon is on the run
Take me take me take me to the new day
Take me out and let me get me some
Take take take and dance me thru the lightning
Moving to the left 'n' to the sun...


Help me get me some...
come on

I guess you didn't know it, but I'm a fiddle player too...
"I too, felt a surge of racial bigotry. Most distasteful..."
Leonard Nimoy.
I hit the road for New York City, on a whim, in 1985. I found in a used bookstore, 'Welcome to the Monkey House' by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., where there is a story about a human chess game. Frightening concept, more frightening when people so small, they cannot do anything directly or individually actually think this is a good idea.
To be continued...

Tennessee Stud, written by Jimmy Drifwood, who was a friend of my father, and recorded by Johnny Cash, who was my stepfather's favorite, and the performer of my first concert, at age 11:

Back about eighteen and twenty-five
I left Tennessee very much alive
I never would have made it through the Arkansas mud
If I hadn't been ridin on the Tennessee stud

I had some trouble with my sweetheart's pa
One of her brothers was a bad outlaw
I wrote a letter to my Uncle Fud
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

Drifted on down into no man's land
Across the river called the Rio Grande
I raced my horse with the Spaniards fold
Till I got me a skin full of silver and gold

Me and the gambler we couldn't agree
We got in a fight over Tennessee
We pulled our guns, an' he fell with a thud
And I rode away on the Tennessee stud

I rode right back across Arkansas
I whipped her brother and I whipped her pa
I found that girl with the golden hair
And she was ridin' on a Tennessee mare

Pretty little baby on the cabin floor
Little horse colt playin' 'round the door
I love the girl with golden hair
And the Tennessee stud loves the Tennessee mare


Jimmy Driftwood (1907–1998)
aka: James Corbitt Morris


Jimmy Driftwood was a prolific folk singer-songwriter who wrote over 6,000 songs. He gained national fame in 1959 when Johnny Horton recorded Driftwood’s song, “The Battle of New Orleans.” Even after Driftwood had risen to fame, he continued living in rural Stone County, spending most of his time promoting and preserving the music and heritage of the Ozark Mountains.

Jimmy Driftwood was born James Corbett Morris in West Richwoods (Stone County) near Mountain View (Stone County), on June 20, 1907, to Neal and Allie Risner-Morris. He was given the name Driftwood as the result of a joke his grandfather had played on his grandmother. When the two went to visit their new grandson, Driftwood’s grandfather arrived first and wrapped a bundle of old sticks in a blanket. When Driftwood’s grandmother arrived, she was handed the bundle and remarked, “Why, it ain’t nothing but driftwood.”

Music played a large role in Driftwood’s life from his earliest years. His father, a farmer by trade, was also an accomplished folk singer, and it was through him and other local musicians that Driftwood was first exposed to the songs of the Ozarks. While still a small child, Driftwood learned to play the guitar his grandfather had made from a piece of a rail fence and other salvaged materials. He would continue to play this unusual-looking instrument throughout his career; it became his trademark and is currently on display in the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame in Pine Bluff (Jefferson County).

Driftwood was a good student during his eight short school terms in the one-room school at Richwoods (Stone County). Although he had not attended high school, he passed the Arkansas Teachers Exam when he was sixteen. He spent the next few years teaching in one-room schoolhouses in Prim (Cleburne County), Roasting Ear Creek (Stone County), Timbo (Stone County), and Fifty-six (Stone County), while attending high school in Mountain View. After graduating in 1928, he attended Arkansas State Teacher’s College (now University of Central Arkansas) in Conway (Faulkner County), before eventually attending John Brown College (now John Brown University) in Siloam Springs (Benton County). In addition to teaching, Driftwood played the fiddle at local dances and other venues to earn money for college.

Driftwood left college before receiving a degree and rambled for a while, eventually ending up in Arizona. While in Phoenix, he won a local talent show, which led to weekly performances on a local radio station. He left Phoenix in 1935 and returned to Stone County to teach in Timbo. Although he had been writing songs and poetry for years, it was at Timbo that Driftwood began teaching his students history through song. It was also there that he fell in love with a former student, Cleda Johnson. They were married on November 26, 1936. The couple had three sons.

After his marriage to Cleda, Driftwood continued to teach at area schools as well as write songs and play folk music. In 1947, the couple was able to purchase the 150-acre farm where they would live the rest of their lives. After years of taking summer and night classes, Driftwood finally received his BSE degree from Arkansas State Teacher’s College on May 29, 1949 and, with it, became principal of Snowball School (Searcy County).

In early 1950s, Driftwood began testing the waters of commercial music. He submitted songs he had written to several record companies, including Blasco Music Company and Shelter Music, both in Kansas City, Missouri. Both Shelter and Blasco recorded some of Driftwood’s material, but with little commercial success. In 1957, Driftwood went to Nashville and auditioned for RCA record executive Don Warden, who signed him to a recording contract. Driftwood, under the guidance of RCA’s Chet Atkins, recorded his first album, titled Jimmy Driftwood Sings Newly Discovered American Folk Songs, in less than three hours. It was released in 1958 and saw limited success. The album featured “The Battle of New Orleans,” a song Driftwood had composed in 1936 to help his students differentiate between the War of 1812 and the Revolutionary War. The song was a hit among those who heard it, but the strict broadcast standards of the day virtually excluded it from the airways because of the words “hell” and “damn” in the lyrics. After the release of Driftwood’s album, he quit his job as principal of Snowball School and began making regular appearances at such popular country music venues as the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee; the Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Missouri; and the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he met Johnny Horton, who expressed an interest in recording “The Battle of New Orleans.” Driftwood revamped the song’s lyrics to make them acceptable for radio.


Horton’s recording of “The Battle of New Orleans” stayed on top of the country singles chart for ten weeks in 1959 and also held the top spot on the pop charts for six weeks. Partially because of his notoriety for this song, Driftwood was asked to perform his traditional American music for Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev during his visit to the United Nations in 1959. Driftwood and Horton took Song of the Year honors at the second Grammy awards ceremony in 1959. Driftwood’s “Wilderness Road” also received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Performance of the Year in 1959, and the same year, Eddie Arnold received a Grammy nomination in both country and folk categories for his version of Driftwood’s most-recorded song, “Tennessee Stud.”

Driftwood received another Grammy nomination for the 1961 song, “Billy Yank and Johnny Reb.” During the next few years, Driftwood, often joined on stage by Cleda, performed at Carnegie Hall, the Grand Ole Opry, and major folk festivals. On March 31, 1962, Driftwood was elevated from a regular guest to starring member of the Grand Ole Opry. He also returned to the educational profession in 1962, teaching folklore at the University of Southern California in Idyllwild. Jimmy also released his final album on the RCA label, Driftwood at Sea. However, the album sold poorly, and Driftwood longed to return to Stone County.

In 1963, Driftwood returned to Timbo. He formed the Rackensack Folklore Society, was one of the visionaries in creating the Arkansas Folk Festival in Mountain View, and was a leading force in the establishment of the Ozark Folk Center. Having more national notoriety than anyone else involved in Arkansas’s folk scene, Driftwood was largely responsible for promoting and securing funding for folk celebrations and the folk center. He astounded city officials by obtaining $2.1 million toward the construction of the center from the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives.

Driftwood also became involved in environmental issues. He helped secure the designation of the Buffalo River as the first national river and helped persuade the United States Forest Service to develop and promote the Blanchard Springs Caverns. He held several prominent positions, including chairman of the Arkansas Parks and Tourism Commission, member of the Advisory Committee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Advisory Board for the National Endowment for the Arts, and musicologist for the National Geographic Society, producing Music of the Ozarks, the society’s first album of American folk music

In 1975, Driftwood was relieved of his position as musical director of the Ozark Folk Center. This controversial removal caused a backlash among Driftwood’s friends and musical companions in the Rackensack Folklore Society. The majority of Rackensackers, who had been the heart of the Folk Center’s programs, cut ties with the Folk Center and left in search of a new performance venue. Driftwood purchased a three-acre plot of land north of the Folk Center, and by 1976, he and the Rackensackers had built a simple wood-frame building for the performance of traditional Arkansas folk music.

Driftwood died on July 12, 1998, in Fayetteville (Washington County), where he had been hospitalized. His ashes were scattered on his farm near Timbo.