Shawneetown

Shawneetown

Strangely enough, this is the song that started it all. When the esteemed David Schnaufer heard this song, he nearly flipped out. He said “You’ve got to record this and I know just the guy to do it, T.J. Larkin” David called T.J. and put us together. The rest. as they say is history. I never imagined how much people would enjoy this song.

Shawneetown Illinois was quite a place. At one time, it was bigger than Chicago. The story goes that the people wanting to start Chicago tried to get the Bank at Shawneetown to loan them money for development. The Shawneetown folks didn’t think a place that far north would ever amount to anything. Shawneetown is located on the Ohio River in Southern Illinois and being a river town it has quite the reputation for being a rough place. Back in the day, I dated a girl from Shawneetown. She wasn’t anything like the girl in the song, in-fact, that girl was quite lovely in face and form and she was a whole lot of fun to be with, (and she had much better manners.) So Shawneetown girl whom I dated, and remaining anonymous, if you are reading this, you know who you are, the song is certainly not about you.

Oh yes, Shawneetown had the distinction of being the home of “Rambling Rudy Phillips” voted King of the Hobos by the National Hobo Convention. Up till his death in 2004, he maintained a somewhat less than world class, but still quite interesting, Hobo Museum in a shed in his backyard.

Rocky Alvey

Muddy Sunshine Music, Nashville, TN