A traveling guitarist recounts months broke across the American South, hitching rides and riding freight trains from Memphis to Panama City, hearing "there ain't no room around here for a guitar man" in every bar. He finally finds work in Mobile, Alabama, at Big Jack's, joining a swing band on the Gulf Coast.
Chapters
My audience over here. Hey bud, say hi. For the next few weeks, I went to honking that knocker looking for a place to play. Got the same old story going on back then, is there ain't no room around here for a guitar man. Well, I nearly about starved to death down in Memphis. I ran out of money and luck. So I bought me a ride down to Macon, Georgia on an overloaded poultry truck. Went on down to Panama City, started checking out some of them all-night bars. Hopin' I could make myself a dollar makin' music on my guitar. Got the same old story at them all-night gigs. Ain't no room around here for guitar men. So I slept in hobo jungles, rode a thousand miles of track, till I found myself in Mobile, Alabama, at a club they called Big Jack's. A little four-piece band was playin', so I took my guitar and I sat in. Make it on out to the Club Charlie Jackson if you got a little time to kill. Just follow that crowd of people, you'll end up out on his dance floor. Diggin' the finest little 5-piece group up and down the Gulf of Mexico. Guess who's leading that 5-piece band? Well, you know it's that swingin' little guitar man. My tribute to Jerry Reed.