By MONTE DUTTON

I don’t think I’ve done this every year – maybe not even last year when I was blissfully unaware I was a few days away from being rushed to the hospital – but it has been a common practice of mine for at least a couple decades to send out song lyrics at Christmas time.

Let’s start with Merle Haggard.

If we can make it through December / Everything’s gonna be all right, I know / It’s the coldest time of winter / And I shiver when I see the falling snow / If we can make it through December / Got plans to be in a warmer town come summertime / Maybe even California / If we can make it through December, we’ll be fine.

I’m tired of this dirty old city / Tired of too much work / And never enough play / And I’m tired of this dirty old sidewalk / Think I’ll walk off my steady job today.

I raised a lot of Cain back in my younger days / While Mama used to pray my crops would fail.

Mama tried to raise me better / But her pleading I denied / That leaves only me to blame / ‘Cause Mama tried.

It was in my head all day when I watched a video of this Buck Owens song about a week ago.

Santa looked a lot like Daddy / Daddy looked a lot like him / Santa didn’t come down the chimney / Mama went and let him in / If I see Santa kissing Mama / I’m a-gonna tell on him / Santa looked a lot like Daddy / Daddy looked a lot like him.

I don’t care if the birds don’t sing / I don’t care if the bells don’t ring / Just as long as you love me.

Have you ever listened to Iris Dement? You should.

Everybody is wondering what and where they all came from / Everybody is worrying ’bout / Where they’re gonna go when the whole thing’s done / But no one knows for certain and so it’s all the same to me / I think I’ll just let the mystery be.

And I can see the sun’s settin’ fast / And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts / Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye / But hold on to your lover / ‘Cause your heart’s bound to die / Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town / Can’t you see the sun’s settin’ down on our town, on our town / Good night.

Tom T. Hall always moved me.

I’m sorry that I couldn’t be here with you all when Mama passed away / I was on the road and when they came and told me it was just too late / I went by the grave to see her / Man, that really is a pretty stone / I’m glad that Fred and Jan are here / It’s better than you being here alone.

If you love somebody enough / You’ll follow wherever she goes / That’s how I got to Memphis / That’s how I got to Memphis.

As Jerry Reed said of Marty Robbins, “If I could sing like that, I’d turn this guitar into firewood.”

Ribbon of darkness over me / Where once the world was young as spring / Where flowers did bloom and birds did sing / Ribbon of darkness over me.

Love me, oh, love me / Love me like nobody else can do
Need me, oh, need me / And just let me go on needin’ you.

It’s time for Hank Williams, original recipe.

The silence of a falling star / Lights up a purple sky / And as I wonder where you are / I’m so lonesome I could cry.

It’s hard to know another’s lips have kissed you / And held you just the way I used to do / Heaven only knows how much I miss you / I can’t help it if I’m still in love with you.

No list of lyrics should be without Kris Kristofferson.

In the park I saw a daddy / With a laughing little girl he was swinging / And I stopped outside a church and listened to a song they were singing / Then I walked back home and somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringing / And it echoed through the canyons like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.

He has tasted good and evil in your bedrooms and your bars / And he’s traded in tomorrow for day / Running from his devils, Lord, and reaching for the stars / Losing all he loved along the way.

How I miss Jerry Jeff Walker.

Lots of smiling faces / Little children running around / Everybody’s somebody in an old Hill Country town / Dirt daubers humming, see the stickerburs on your socks / Sure time you spent some time in beautiful Luckenbach.

Manny liked to laugh and share a good story or two / If he’s making you a hat, he needs to know some things about you / He’d say, ‘Sit yourself down, tell us what you’re thinking about’ / Your hat says something about you before you even open your mouth.

And Don Williams.

I’m just a country boy / Money have I none / But I’ve got silver in the stars / Gold in the morning sun.

I can still hear the soft Southern wind in the live oak trees / And those Williams boys still mean a lot to me / Hank and Tennessee / I guess we’re all gonna be what we’re gonna be / So what do you with good old boys like me?

The great Bill Anderson.

A bright array of city lights as far as I can see / The great white way keeps reaching out / For lonely guys like me / The cabarets and honky tonks their flashing signs invite / A broken heart to lose itself in the glow of city lights.

Once a day / All day long / And once a night / From dusk till dawn / The only time I wish you weren’t gone / Is once a day, every day, all day long.

Robert Earl Keen Jr.

I’m coming home / Made up my mind that’s what I’m gonna do / Can’t love nobody on the telephone / I’m coming home to you.

I lived in Corpus with my brother / We were always on the run / We were bad for one another / But we were good at having fun.

Steve Earle

You used to say the highway was your home / But we both know that ain’t true / It’s just the only place a man can go / When he don’t know where he’s traveling to.

There’s a road in Oklahoma / Straighter than a preacher, longer than a memory / It goes on, forever onward / It’s been a good teacher / For a lot of country boys like me.

I could go on all day.

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