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Welcome to the first in a new series: Stories and Songs from the Streets of Bakersfield.  

It's a series inspired by The Streets of Bakersfield, the song written by Homer Joy and recorded and taken to the top of the charts by Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam.  The series involves mostly real people (a few imagined ones) that I have had conversations with as I've lived out Homer Joy's song as a Bakersfield street musician.  

If you're cued up on the play station above the photo, and if you've pressed the play bar, then you're listening to the story of a couple of strangers I recently met in front of Trout's on Chester Avenue in Bakersfield California.  This song will appear, likely in a recording with better sound, on my forthcoming CD, From Buck Owens Blvd. to Merle Haggard Drive. 

Stay tuned at:

http://www.drblt.net

The Ballad of Snowbird and Ebony

Dr BLT

words and music by Dr BLT copyright 2008

I was drivin' by Trout's

in Bakersfield the other day

when I came across a stranger with a dog

and he said his name was Snowbird

and his dog was Ebony

the two of them were homeless

tryin' to make a livin' on the streets

snowbird said he travelled 

down from Washington

he was promised a good job

and he longed to see the sun

he was a snowbird

and he didn't like the rain

he fell in love with a girl

who took care of her dad

who was in pain

the girl had a dog

and the dog was Ebony

the girl's daddy died

and their love would soon

end in misery

he hit the streets and ended up

with nothin' 

but the dog whose name was

Ebony

when the conversation ended

I said good-bye and walked away

all I had was a 5

and I'm cheap

and thought about it

then gave it away

I felt relieved

just to help

a couple of strangers

Snowbird and his dog

Ebony

life ain't very easy

for Snowbird

and his dog

Ebony