COMMENT: I think I probably wrote this song to answer the question that was often posed, "Where did you get the name 'Dizzy Rambler'?". This is a true story and was one of the first real songs that I ever wrote.
My daddy played the fiddle in a hillbilly band
But gave it up to give me all the things he never had
He bought for me this ol' guitar when I was maybe ten
I think I'll never be the same again
Daddy was a Dizzy Rambler
But I don't think he meant for me to be
I could have been a doctor or a lawyer
But a Dizzy Rambler's all I want to be
I'd be a rich man here today If I just had a dime
For ev'ry mile I rode these Dixie highways in my time
I got my education with my guitar on my side
But that's been enough to keep me satisfied
COMMENT: I always had a love for trains (both real and scale model) and this song is a product of that romance. The first verse is pure fiction (I've never ridden the rails in a boxcar) but the dream sequence in the second verse is written from real memories of those vacations with Daddy and Mama in North Alabama. Also notable on this demo recording is the work of Chubby Anthony, who was the fiddler on most of the Stanley Brothers biggest hits.
I'm sittin' here freezin' in a southbound empty
just a little north of Jacksonville
If that cold wind blowin' through the door don't kill me
then I wonder if the brakeman will
This ol' freight train ain't the Orange Blossom Special
but she'll get me home just the same
And you can mark my words if I somehow make it
I ain't never gonna leave again
Roll, roll on
Seaboard Coastline freight train rollin' on
Roll, roll on
Seaboard Coastline freight train Rollin' Home
Last night I dreamed I's in North Alabama
and I could hear my daddy play
He never had more than a catalog fiddle
but the folks could hear it miles away
So they came from the fields and they came from the river
and soon the house began to sway
And I could smell the smoke from that Fire On The Mountain
as it all began to fade away
COMMENT: I wrote this song after Daddy died in the mid-1980s. It chronicles my parents lives from the poverty of Depression Era North Alabama to the working middle-class of Central Florida. This is another true story and one that made my mama cry.
So very little changes up in North Alabama
That great depression came as no big deal
Them that had got by and all the rest still scraped survival
From the rollin' rocky red clay cotton fields
No there wasn't much to hold a dreamer there in Limestone County
A simple country boy with bigger plans
So he took a widow woman with two daughters for his fam'ly
And they headed south to seek the promise land
(But/In) The Forks Of The River (Tho/So) far away, (were/but) always home
Hard times there were not forgotten
But in the stories they could tell the good lived on
In The Forks Of The River
They found the love they gave to me
Their two hearts were joined together
Like the Big Elk and the mighty Tennessee
They settled in this southern land of sun and sky blue waters
And set about to make thier dreams come true
A simple plan of workin' hard and clingin' to each other
While trustin' in the Lord to see them through
And tho they were never wealthy they gave all I ever needed
From the rivers flowin' deep inside their hearts
And I'll be ever thankful that my mama and my daddy
Gave me the love they'd had right from the start
Family History (pre 1960)
Original Songs: Inspired by Mama & Daddy 
Dizzy Rambler
My daddy played the fiddle in a hillbilly band
