Steve Earle - Fort Worth Blues

Lyrics

In Fort Worth all the neons're burning bright

Pretty lights of red and blue

But they'd shut down all the honky tonks tonight

And say a prayer or two if they only knew

You used to say the highway was your home

But we both know that that ain't true

It's just the only place a man can go

When he don't know where he's travelling to

Colorado's always clean and healing

And Tennessee in Spring is green and cool

It never really was your kind of town

But you went around with the Fort Worth blues

Somewhere up beyond the great divide

Where the sky is wide and the clouds are few

A man can see his way clear to the light

Just hold on tight that's all you got to do

They say Texas weather's always changing

And one thing change will bring is something new

And Houston really ain't that bad a town

So you hang around with the Fort Worth Blues

It's a Full moon over Galway Bay tonight

Silver light over green and blue

And every place I travel through I find

Some kind of sign that you've been through

Well Amsterdam was always good for grieving

And London never fails to leave me blue

And Paris never was my kind of town

So I walked around with the Fort Worth Blues

Trivia

Fort Worth Blues was written in February/March 1997 - Townes Van Zandt died on 1st Jan, Steve came over the pond about 10 days later, did a European tour - acoustic, and did not give himself or get the time to think about Townes' death until he got to Galway, where he wrote that song and finished his songs for El Corazon. Fort Worth is the city in Texas where Van Zandt was born and raised.

The intent of this piece is to look at Steve Earle's song Fort Worth Blues in relation to the place where it was written, Galway on the West coast of Ireland. Also to draw attention to another unique watering hole in the Western world where the poet, songwriter and subject of Fort Worth Blues, the late Townes Van Zandt is highly regarded.

Nancy Griffith's tears towards the end of the video are very real and representative of the sentiment amongst the musicians and poets around Van Zandt's death. This was an Austin City Limits show with quite a gathering of musicians.

Even More Trivia