Where The Southern Cross The Dog
by 
Hans Theessink 
recording of 1997 
from 
Journey On (Minor 84172) 
Held a good job in the city 
Had a lay-off and they got poor me 
I feel so lowdown and disgusted 
Just can't find a way to make ends meet 
Take my baby by the hand, leave this town 
I know we'll make it, baby, longs as you stick around 
Go back to the country where the Southern crosses the Dog 
City folks they drive me crazy 
They're a-pushin' and a-shovin' all the time 
It's a ratrace for the money 
In their eyes you can see that dollar sign 
Take my baby by the hand, leave this town 
I know we'll make it, baby, longs as you stick around 
Go back to the country where the Southern crosses the Dog 
Go back, back to the country 
Go back, back to the country 
Go back to the country where the Southern crosses the Dog 
We'll get us some wheels 
Wave this city bye-bye 
All this smog and pollution 
You can never see the clear blue sky 
Take my baby by the hand, leave this town 
I know we'll make it, baby, longs as you stick around 
Go back to the country where the Southern crosses the Dog 
__________ 
Note 1: the junction of the Southern and the Dog (Yazoo & Mississippi Valley - Y&MV) railroad lines 
W.C. Handy the "Father of the Blues" wasn't an ordinary 
Delta 
bluesman. Handy studied music as a youth, playing the cornet and traveling the South with dance bands playing minstrel and tent shows. Later in life he became a songwriter, bandleader and publisher. 
Legend is that while waiting for an overdue train in Tutwiler, Mississippi, in 1903 that he heard an itinerant bluesman playing slide guitar and singing about "goin' where the Southern cross the Dog", referring to the junction of the Southern and Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railroads farther south near Moorhead. Handy called it "the weirdest music I had ever heard".