Shooter Jennings: "Fourth of July"

As the long Fourth of July weekend approaches and many will be traveling on vacation in the days ahead, I suggest some rousing music by Shooter Jennings perfectly designed for the holiday and summertime cross-country driving. I know it is one of my favorites to blare in the car—with the windows open to the warm July air when motoring along the interstate highways or county roads—and, as Shooter describes in the song, to just sing along.

Surprisingly, the song even begins with a few somewhat poetic lines: “Alone with the morning burning red / On the canvas in my head / Painting a picture of you and me . . ..” (I usually write about jazz, but I’m fond of all kinds of music, and I confess I often find country lyrics unassumingly poetic or entertaining; therefore, I like the words in the rest of the song as well.) Also, the video appropriately closes with some fireworks. Enjoy and drive safely!

FOURTH OF JULY

Alone with the morning burning red
On the canvas in my head
Painting a picture of you and me
Driving across country
In a dusty old RV
Just the road and its majesty
And I’m lookin’ at you with the world in the rear-view

You were pretty as can be, sittin’ in the front seat
Lookin’ at me, tellin’ me you love me
And you’re happy to be
With me on the 4th of July
We sang “Stranglehold” ‘til the stereo
Couldn’t take no more of that rock ‘n’ roll
So we put on a little George Jones and just sang along

Those white lines can drone into the sun
If you ain’t got no one to keep you hanging on
But there you were like a queen in your nightgown,
Ridin’ shotgun from town to town
Staking a claim on the world we found
And I’m singin’ to you, you’re singin’ to me,
You were out of the blue to a boy like me

You were pretty as can be, sittin’ in the front seat
Lookin’ at me, tellin’ me you love me
And you’re happy to be
With me on the 4th of July
We sang “Stranglehold” ‘til the stereo
Couldn’t take no more of that rock ‘n’ roll
So we put on a little George Jones and just sang along . . . sang along—

And I’m looking for you in the silence that we shared

You were pretty as can be, sittin’ in the front seat
Lookin’ at me, tellin’ me you love me
And you’re happy to be
With me on the 4th of July
We sang “Stranglehold” ‘til the stereo
Couldn't take no more of that rock ‘n’ roll
So we put on a little George Jones and just sang along . . . sang along!