Hickory Stix (with band).

James Michael Taylor

A song I wrote with Lisa Aschmann in 1007. There’s a hickory handle factory in Sequatchie, Tennessee. Dad and I did a tour a few years ago.

HICKORY STIX
Video - https://www.facebook.com/100001011201926/videos/1285714588695761/

Dm Am
Billy Mac and Don McCray drive to work each dawn at six
Down the mountain to the factory, makes handles outta hickory stix
Their job is easy labor, hanging handles on the line
That drags them thru the lacquer. Killing more than Time

First batch of handles drying on the dripping drying rack
Another batch of brain cells dying. They’ll never get ‘em back
Flatbed full of handles. Yard high with hickory chips
Eyes, glazed like a pastry. They wipe sweat from their cracking lips.

Dm C G Dm - Ah-ooo

They don’t worry about no G man come close the factory down
They got a cousin’s got an uncle’s got connections back in town
And there’s not a living thing within ten feet of that room
Not a silver fish, not a cockroach, not a seed pod not a bloom…*

The wind once blew a firefly, blinking thru the door
They swore it was a space ship they swatted thru the floor
They don’t smoke tobacco. They don’t take no whiskey fix
At night, deep in their pillows, they dream about HICKORY STIX…*

Modulate to Em
Hearse drives down the mountain, followed by pick-up trucks
The boys are leaving early and they’re going home de luxe.
Teachers say they’re slackers. Boss said, “They’re just hicks,
Somebody’s got to lacquer handles made of hickory stix.”…
Oooooooo Somebody’s gotta lacquer hickory handled hardware.

Em D A Em - Ah-ooo
Em D A Em
Somebody’s gotta Lacquor Hickory Handled Hardware
Em Bm Em
Somebody’s gotta lacquer handles made of hickory stiv
Em D A Em - Ah-ooo (2)
(C) 2007 Royal T Music