“Tennessee Blues” was written by Bobby Charles, the Louisiana songwriter from Abbeville who wrote “See You Later, Alligator,” known through Bill Haley and His Comets, and “Walking to New Orleans” for Fats Domino. Charles recorded it for his first album, Bobby Charles (Bearsville, 1972), where it is the closing track. The album was recorded at Bearsville Studios and co-produced by Charles with John Simon and Rick Danko of the Band; Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel and Levon Helm are among the players. It is a different piece from Bill Monroe’s instrumental of the same name.
The lyric is a wish to get away. The singer says that if he had his way he would leave today, in a hurry, and find a place to stay without worrying; he pictures a spot on a mountaintop with no one around, valleys and streams, birds in the trees and hills on every side, where he could try to forget his regrets, keep only the good times, and sleep and wake in peace.
Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge recorded it on their duet album Full Moon (A&M, 1973), and Doug Sahm included it on Texas Tornado (Atlantic, December 1973). In bluegrass, J.D. Crowe and the New South recorded it on My Home Ain’t in the Hall of Fame (Rounder, 1979), recorded at Electric Arts Studio in Madisonville, Kentucky: Keith Whitley sings lead, Jimmy Gaudreau tenor and Crowe baritone, with Gaudreau on mandolin, Doug Jernigan on steel and dobro and Steve Bryant on electric bass. Josh Williams recorded it on Now That You’re Gone (Pinecastle, 2001), with Crowe on banjo and baritone vocal, Chris Thile on mandolin, Aubrey Haynie on fiddle and Missy Raines on bass.
