Rattlesnake In A Cooler;  The music for a familiar production of this one-man play was done by Danny D'arst.  The following four songs are from the play and tell the story of four men whose lives are like many men.

       D-1 Gave His Soul To The Highway; How the story begins.   (04/22/2007 -- 2:23)

       D-2 Armed And Crazy; The second part of the story of a "Jimmy."   (04/22/07 -- 1:32)

        D-3 Crazy & Out of Control;  The third part of the story but of a different  "Jimmy."  (04/22/07 -- 3:05)

        D-4 His Mother's Son;  The final story of many "Jimmys."   (04/22/07 -- 1:51)

D-5 Billy and Nanny;  1950.  George Vaughn and Kenny Roberts.  Another Beautiful Nonsense song that always gets a laugh.    (04/24/2007 -- 1:36)

D-7 Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music);  1952, Cousin Joe Maphis, Rose Lee, & Max Fidler.   Great old honky tonk song.  Similar thoughts in Hank Thompson's big hit, "Honkey Tonk Angel."    (04/28/07 -- 1:39)

D-8 Wrinkled, Crinkled, Wadded, Dollar Bill;  1967.  I got this from an E.V. "Poppa" Stoneman gig in Houston in 1968, though the song, by Vince Mathews, sounds older than 1967.  (04/28/07 -- 2:44)       For song words click on "Lyrics".  Lyrics.

D-9 Makes No Difference Now;  1938. Floyd Tillman and Jimmy Davis (Governor of Louisiana /  "You Are My Sunshine.").  This was Floyd's earliest hit.  Even the Supremes recorded this song.   (05/15/2007 --   2:36)      

D-10 Last Straw;  1950, Floyd Tillman. Good honky tonk song for the swayers and gropers on the dance floor. One of the "slowest" songs I know.   (04/28/07 -- 3:19)   

D-11 I Gotta' Have My Baby Back; 1949.   Floyd Tillman.  I always enjoy doing Tillman songs. This was my first guitar music.   (04/30/2007 --   1:32)

D-12 Just As Long As I Have You;  1950. Floyd Tillman.  The lines in this song and in "This Cold War With You" date them.   (04/30/2007 --   1:30)

D-13 This Cold War With You;  1949.   Floyd Tillman. More honky tonk dance music.  (04/30/2007 --   1:31)

D-14 I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know: 1953. Cecil A. Null.  An unusually beautiful song for the 1950 honky tonk period. It was a popular VFW dance hall waltz.   (04/30/2007 --   2:05)

D-15 Don't Brush Them On Me;  1953. Ernest Tubb.  Like most Tubb songs, this one has the Tubb "Walking The Floor Over You" sound.     (04/30/2007 --   1:57)

D-16 Playin' Dominoes And Shootin' Dice;  1953. Tex Wood and O. D. Dobbs. These songs, like "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke," "Preacher And The Bear," "Hot Rod Lincoln," "That's What I Like About The South," and others, were done in the then-popular, near sing-song voice.     (04/30/2007 --   2:21)

D-17 My Mary;  1941. Stuart Hamblen and Jimmy Davis.  Nice sentimental song.  I think there might be a "Mary" in every man's life.     (04/30/2007 --   1:41) 

D-18 She Even Woke Me Up;  1969.  Mickey Newbury and Douglas Gilmore.  I first heard it in a bar.  I don't know who the guy singing it was.    (05/02/2007 --   2:32) 

D-19 Cheatin's The Same;  I have no idea where I got this song.   (05/02/2007 --   1:25) 

D-20 Pressure Cooker;  This term might have already fallen into folk loredom.  The places were called "pressure cookers" because wives could go out to local clubs to run around, and then get back home to cook beans (quickly) in a pressure cooker before their husbands returned from work.  Before then, the wives needed to stay around the house to keep putting water in the beans. The pressure cooker had freed the wives.  I don't know where I got this song.    (05/02/2007 --   2:31) 

D-21 She's Lookin' Better By The Minute; I do not know where I got this song but I know that Ernest Tubb recorded it. A fun song to do.   (05/02/2007 --   1:46) 

D-22 When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold; 1941.  Wiley Walker and Gene Sullivan.  Many, many people recorded this song.  It just always was around, not unlike, "You Are My Sunshine."   (05/15/2007 --   1:52)      

D-23 There Must Be More To Love Than This;  1971. Bill Taylor and Laverne Thomas.  I was surprised that this song is that recent.    (05/15/2007 --   3:15)      

D-24 Whoa' Sailor;  1944. Hank Thompson's earliest hit.  I remember it from  when Thompson had a live radio show on KWTX at 12:15 noon... Waco, TX, in 1946.  My mother didn't like me singing this song because it had the word "bull" in it.  I was 12.   (05/15/2007 --   1:59)      

D-25 Middle Age Crazy;  1978. Sonny Throckmorton.  Another date I am surprised at.   (05/15/2007 --   2:54)     

D-26 To Make Love Sweeter For You;  1968.  Glenn Sutton and Jerry Kennedy.  Sutton died in April, 2007, with over 400 great songs to his credit.   (05/15/2007 --   2:31)

D-27 You Win Again;  1953.  Hank Williams.   (05/25/2007 --   2:22)

D-28 I Was Just Walking Out The Door;  1952.  Cindy Williams.  I remember doing this song in late 1953 on my arch top Harmony Broadway.    (05/25/2007 --   2:44)

D-29 Be Honest With Me Dear;  1941. Gene Autry and Fred Rose.   Autry's clear voice made this more of a pop hit than country.   (06/02/2007 -- 2:26)

D-30 Born To Lose;  1942. Ted Dafin.  Autry did this song, as well as "Time Changes Everything."  His fan base and his superb selection of songs kept him in #1 hits.    (06/02/2007 -- 3:27)

D-31 Cigareets, Whuskey, & Wild, Wild Women; 1947. Tim Spencer.  Spencer, with the Sons of the Pioneers, had a moderate success with this song, but Red Ingles and his Natural Seven had a block-buster hit.    (06/02/2007 --  2:52) 

D-32 Time Changes Everything; Tommy Duncan, singing with Bob Wills, had a big hit with this song and it was so well written that it was recorded by many top-name performers.   (06/02/2007 --  1:51) 

D-33 Angelina: Written by Tom Gruning.  This is a great song about true love.   (06/15/2007 -- 6:52)

D-34 Where Are All The Girls?; 1985. "Whitey" Shafer.  I think "Whitey" listened to Al Dexter (1940s) a lot.  This is similar to classic 1950 honky tonk songs.  It is only 22 years old.  I didn't know I knew any modern songs.   (06/15/2007 -- 2:29)

D-35 Once More With Feeling; 1970. Kris Kristofferson.  This song is from just day before yesterday!  I remember being in community theater and we thought this song was a good one for the acting troop.   (06/15/2007 -- 2:39)

D-36 So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed; 1947.  Merle Travis.  This is one of those West Coast songs from the old honky tonk recording days. Travis did OK with this song, but Johnny Bond had a good swing band and his version reached #4 (at the same time, he took Travis's "Divorce Me C.O.D." to #3).      (06/15/2007 -- 2:02)

D-37 Don't Tell Me How I Looked A'Falling; ~1962.  Peter La Farge wrote this about his rodeo days.  It makes a good point.   (06/16/2007 -- 2:29)

D-38 Frankie & Johnny #2; 1964. Bob Gibson and Shel Silverstein.  Totally tongue in cheek and for having fun.  I heard Gibson do this many times in the Village.  The little recitation at the end, I picked up from an early guitar player friend of mine, Jon Meeks, who could do this song extremely well.  (Jon, call me.)    (06/22/2007 -- 3:02)

D-39 One More Minute With You; 1985.  Al Yankovic.  I consider this the reciprocal of a love song. (Note:  This is a long song.)    (06/22/2007 -- 6:19)