Along about eighteen and twenty-five
I left Tennessee very much alive
I never would have made it through the Arkansas mud
If I hadn't been a-riding on the Tennessee Stud


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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 had some trouble with my sweetheart's pa
One of her brothers was a bad outlaw
I sent her a letter by my Uncle Thud
And I rode away on the Tennessee Stud

One day I was riding in a beautiful land
I run smack into an Indian band
They jumped their nags with a whoop and a yell
And away we rode like a bat out of Hell

I circled their camp for a time or two
Just to show what a Tennessee horse can do
The redskin boys couldn't get my blood
'Cause I was a-riding on the Tennessee Stud

I drifted on down into no man's land
I crossed the river called the Rio Grande
I raced my horse with the Spaniards bold
'Til I got me a skinful of silver and gold

Me and a gambler, we couldn't agree
We got in a fight over Tennessee
We jerked our guns, he fell with a thud
And I got away on the Tennessee Stud

Well I got as lonesome as a man can be
A-dreaming of my girl in Tennessee
And the Tennessee Stud's green eyes turned blue
'Cause he was a-dreaming of a sweetheart too

I loped on back across Arkansas
And I whupped her brother and I whupped her pa
I found that girl with the golden hair
And she was a-riding on a Tennessee Mare

Stirrup to stirrup and side by side
We crossed the mountains and the valleys wide
We ca