Letter To Hank

You were twenty-nine years old

The day you slipped away

Sleeping in a Cadillac

On the darkest New Years Day

The morphine angels came to you

And took away your pain

A hundred-thousand cowboys

Left crying in the rain.

So thank you for the music

And thank you for the song

And thank you for each golden prayer

That’s just three minutes long

Thank you for the poetry

That makes the bad times better

I put my feelings in this song,

It’s my thank you letter.

I was just a young man

When you knocked upon my door

You showed me tears and liquor

You spilled upon the floor

You struck a chord within my heart

The F to C to G

A thousand imitators

And one that looks like me.

So thank you for the music

And thank you for the song

And thank you for each golden prayer

That’s just three minutes long

Thank you for the poetry

That makes the bad times better

I put my feelings in this song,

It’s my thank you letter.

Well Willie, Merle and Patsy Cline,

George Jones and Emmylou

They couldn’t walk the roads they did

If it weren’t for you

So Hank and Luke the Drifter,

You’ve been gone too long

But I hear you every night

Up in your Tower of Song.

So thank you for the music

And thank you for the song

And thank you for each golden prayer

That’s just three minutes long

Thank you for the poetry

That makes the bad times better

I put my feelings in this song,

It’s my thank you letter.

Lyrics by Vin Murtagh ©2012