Aaron Smith & the Coal Biters - Curly and Tom

Albert Martin
found hisself a woman
Debbie Bolin
Just a couple miles away
You could say they hit it off
Not just a matter of convenience
No it was love
And Albert said he knew
The first time he saw Debbie’s face

Now Debbie and Albert
Went and got married
Took about a year
Circuit preacher done the job
They spent a couple nights camping a little time alone
And it was love
Albert said he knew
The first time he saw Debbie’s face

Albert spent his days building
A cabin on his daddy’s farm
Debbie spent her night’s teaching Albert’s family how to read
She learned ‘em the Bible true religion
Put away their heathen gods their French popery
That’s what she called Henri’s Catholicism—Popery
And they were baptized in the creek
Circuit preacher done the job
It was love
And Albert said he knew
The first time he saw Debbie’s face

Debbie and Albert
Waited till the end of the war
It took ’em five years
Before they had a child
He came out wily
Full head of curly black hair
They named him Albert Junior
But they just called him Curly
And in a year he had a brother named Tom
And Debbie never figured out
What went wrong
With Curly and Tom

They raised ‘em on the farm
Plantin’ and a plowin’
Hoein’ and weedin’
Put a switch to their behinds
Debbie taught ’em how to read
She learned ‘em the Bible
Baptized ‘em in the creek
Circuit preacher didn’t mind doin’ the job
But it never seemed to take
For Curly and Tom

Whiskey and women
Gamblin’ and cheatin’
Cussin’ and fightin’
Skippin’ out on chores
A grief to their momma
A shame to their daddy
Too big for whuppin’
Prayers unanswered
And Debbie never figured out what went wrong
With Curly and Tom

At the general store
Cheatin’ at cards
Curly pulled a gun
He shot Eldridge Walker
The bullet didn’t kill him
So Tom struck him with the blade from a plow
And Eldridge bled to death
Right there on the floor . . .

Debbie and Albert
They left with the boys
In the middle of the night
They fled to Colorado
Them boys never changed
Never worked an honest day
And Debbie always wondered
Sometimes she blamed herself
But she never figured
What went wrong
With Curly and Tom