Cold River - John Hiatt

Well he packed up his suitcase

'cause the deal gone down

She was slipping on her stockings

Lord it made the sweetest sound

There was a baby in the reeds

Along the river outside of town

As he wound his pocket watch

To set time spinnin' 'em all around

Wasn’t long they’d be forgetting

This old rainy Texas day

Little fella wasn’t meant

For this old world anyway

Gambling and whoring

Hiding from plain view

Tell me which one of us rounders

Would you trust this poor child to

You just roll on cold river

Wash little moses down

We’ve got business to attend to

In Chicago Town

In Chicago Town

Well they rolled out of Austin

On some kind of cattle train

She’d been with him for a year

Didn’t know his second name

He worked the small towns hustling nine ball

She hooked the truck stops too

They were trying to make Chicago

Before the winter come blowing through

Some trucker sprang a leak

In California they supposed

Started working Arizona

Lord she missed the bloody rose

They rambled through the southwest

Making money and making time

But they never could find no help

Not a doctor, not that kind

You just roll on cold river

Wash little moses down

We’ve got business to attend to

In Chicago Town

In Chicago Town

Some women love their babies

Some women won’t have one

Some Texas woman found him

And we’re still on the run

The kind of life we’re living

He’d only slow us down

Ain’t good for nothing anyway

Just rambling town to town

You just roll on cold river

Wash little moses down

We’ve got business to attend to

In Chicago Town

In Chicago Town

Well he unpacked his suitcase

She pulled her stockings down

Dreaming up a pool hall

And shooting up a round

She thought about tomorrow

When the money rolled around

That night they slept like babies

In Chicago Town