I wake up every morning about the break of dawn Hear the rooster crowing, I feel all alone There's honeysuckle outside my window, dew sparkling on the vine Little squirrels are barking like they was a mountain lion I get to thinking about the road and all the times I come back again Oh, I was born a child of these muddy roads Lord, I'll die here lonesome as the wind Cause all my cars, they broke down laying in my front yard I ought to get one together but the work just seems too hard But a man come by this morning, he wanted to paint my barn He painted Searock City, U.S. Highway 31 I used to have a church woman, pretty as she could be Run off with a gospel singer down in Nashville, Tennessee So I drank a lot of liquor, Lord, and I drank a lot of booze I'm a midnight country rambler, you know I ain't got much to lose I wake up a lot of mornings laying down in jail My head will be hurting, you know, and I won't be feeling too well That old fat-bellied sheriff, he come walking up to me I want to know how it felt, not being free I tell him it didn't matter, Lord, and I didn't care a whole lot I'd rather have been in jail than held in a fat-bellied cop Yeah, a man come by this morning, Lord, now he wanted to paint my barn Well, he painted Searock City, U.S. Highway 31