Along about 1825, I left Tennessee very much alive, I never would have got through the
Arkansas mud if I hadn't been a-ridin' on the Tennessee studs.
I had some trouble with my sweetheart's paw, and one of her brothers was a bad outlaw.
I sent her a letter by my uncle's foot, and I rode away on the Tennessee stud.
The Tennessee stud was long and lean, the color of the sun, and his eyes were green.
He had the nerve, and he had the blood, and there never was a horse like the Tennessee
stud.
We drifted on down into no man's land, we crossed that river called the Rio Grande.
I raced my horse with a Spaniard's foal, till I got me a skin full of silver and gold.
Me and a gambler, we couldn't agree, we got in a fight over Tennessee.
We jerked our guns, then he fell with a thud, and I got away on the Tennessee stud.
The Tennessee stud was long and lean, the color of the sun, and his eyes were green.
He had the nerve, and he had the blood, and there never was a horse like the Tennessee
stud.
I got just as lonesome as a man can be, dreamin' of my girl in Tennessee.
The Tennessee stud's green eyes turned blue, cause he was a-dreamin' of my sweetheart too.
We loped right back across Arkansas, I whooped her brother and I whooped her paw.
I found that girl with the golden hair, and she was a-ridin' on the Tennessee mare.
The Tennessee stud was long and lean, the color of the sun, and his eyes were green.
He had the nerve, and he had the blood, and there never was a horse like the Tennessee
stud.
Stare up to stare up and side by side, we crossed the mountains and the valleys wide.
We came to Big Muddy, then we forded the flood on the Tennessee mare and the Tennessee stud.
I purred a little baby on the cabin floor, a little horse caught playin' around the door.
I loved that girl with the golden hair, and the Tennessee stud loves the Tennessee mare.
The Tennessee stud was long and lean, the color of the sun, and his eyes were green.
He had the nerve, and he had the blood, and there never was a horse like the Tennessee
stud.