Milwaukee Here I Come

The words are a comic quarrel between husband and wife. In the version Jimmy Martin recorded, they have moved from Milwaukee, where he worked in a brewery, to Nashville to be near the Grand Ole Opry. The husband sets the Opry’s stars, among them Minnie Pearl and Tammy Wynette, against himself, and says he is heading back up the turnpike to Milwaukee until his wife decides which she wants more. He ends by joking about trading in his old Ford for an Oldsmobile.

Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys recorded it on 2 May 1969 at Bradley’s Barn in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, with Chris Warner on banjo, Vernon Derrick on mandolin, Buddy Spicher on fiddle, Bill Yates on bass and Willie Ackerman on drums. Decca issued it that year, paired with “Shackles and Chains,” as Decca 32553. Martin sang it again at the Camp Springs Bluegrass Festival in 1971, with Gloria Belle on vocals. Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton included the song on their 1969 RCA Victor album Always, Always, and John Prine and Melba Montgomery recorded it for Prine’s 1999 album In Spite of Ourselves.