Still beaming from the experience of seeing John Hiatt and the Jerry Douglas Band live earlier this week. This song was one of several that Hiatt performed off his new album Leftover Feelings. He introduced it by saying that when he first moved to Tennessee from Indiana as a young man, he got to know a women who absolutely loved music, and would listen to it all the time on a little transistor radio tuned to station WSM while she did all things that a mother does to make her house run. And so he wrote this song with her in mind.

I love how Hiatt puts you right there in the woman’s daily life and how integral music was to her.

Hope everyone has a nice Sunday!

Lyrics

Sheets dance on the line
White as the clouds gone by
Screen door kicking time
As kids melt into the sky
And you’re making your moves
Trying just to stay alive
And the music is hot

WSM
On your transistor radio
A song about trains
You can hear that whistle blow
Waylon walks the line
Merle’s mama tries to tell him so
And the music is hot

You got a story ’bout twenty miles long
You got a tune like a number one song
You got the sweat like the shirt off my back
You got the heart let me open it a crack
Fiddles and steel takin’ you higher
Passed cotton fields and telephone wires
Out to the church and the gospel choir
And you’re gone

Sun going down
You’re scrounging to feed the dog
You’re wearing a dress
You saw in a catalog
The crickets have started
To sing with those old bull frogs
And the music is hot

You tuck in the kids
And think of a nice long bath
You notice your mom
Staring back from a photograph
Quick as you turn
You’re pretty sure you hear her laugh
And the music is hot

You got a story ’bout twenty miles long
You got a tune like a number one song
You got the sweat like the shirt off my back
You got the heart let me open it a crack
Fiddles and steel takin’ you higher
Passed cotton fields and telephone wires
Beyond the church and the gospel choir
And you’re gone