Tennessee Walker Mare
“We have a great history of gaited horses in our family, that is walker horses with a particular gait. This song basically describes some events in my family and it’s telling the story about my mom. It’s describing her in a time of very troubling family time – how strong she was, how she was able to pull the whole family out of a very troubling time. I just used the analogy of my mom with the walking horses that we raised. There’s a lot of detail in that song. It describes my mother and father moving out West to where they live now in Cochese, Arizona. It describes their going West and leaving the South and it describes my following them and understanding the culture of the West. Just one of those stories where I tie things together in my mind to relate to my family, to understand what’s happening to me.”Jimbo Mathus (191)
Asked My Captain
“This is something I wrote when I was learning the deck hand trade working on a Mississippi gravel barge. I talk about Captain White, Old Chief. Everything in there is a factual event. They didn’t think I could hold my own as a deck hand but I proved them wrong and I made that part of my philosophy, part of my art, part of my music. Never forget the backbreaking work that gets done every day.”Jimbo Mathus (191)