This song was released only on some European versions of the MCA album, Will T. Massey, so many of Will’s American fans had never heard this song. In Italy, when Will ventured a first quick comeback tour in 2006, he found audiences hungry for his music after a 15-year gap, anxious to hear the old songs and sample the new ones. This performance, complete with enthusiastic audience, came at the end of the tour in our host Edward’s home base of SpazioMusica at Pavia.
When they ask you about me
And what I’ve grown to be,
Mama, tell ’em, I tried to be true.
To the pounding of my heart,
The end right from the start,
The wind and to you.
You turn on the porch light
As I fade into night,
You pray I’ll stray back home to you —
I’m bound for Tennessee.
Tell the Lord for me
I tried to be true.
When they ask you about me
And why you set me free,
Baby, tell ’em, I tried to be true
To a golden ring, an old six-string,
The road and to you.
When the cold wind blows,
A railroad knows
How to warn a storm is blowing through —
I’m bound for Tennessee.
Tell the Lord for me
I tried to be true.
There’s a music man
With a business plan
Who likes the way I write a song.
He’s in Tennessee
With a pen for me,
With a traveled guitar, I’ll get along.
God became a distant friend,
Waiting on my journey’s end
When I’ve been too true to deny.
Sleeping in a railroad shack
With all I own on my back,
I lost track of the time going by…
I don’t want to know
How to send back the snow
But of the difference between black & white.
Is this the dawn
Or is the darkness coming on?
Will we roll through day or night?
As I’m crossing a line
And the whistle whines,
Rolling slow, I know where it’s going to —
I’m bound for Tennessee.
Tell the Lord for me
I tried to be true.
I’m bound for Tennessee.
Tell the Lord for me
I tried to be true.
I tried to be true.
Buller's back porch 