New Single
I Know This Road
A tribute to Dolly Parton.
Watch “Highway 82”
About the Song
“Highway 82” is about spending a lot of time growing up around Pecan Island, riding those roads with my dad in his old beat-up Ford — hunting, fishing, crabbing, and making memories I didn’t realize at the time I’d spend the rest of my life wishing I could revisit.
That part of Louisiana has changed a lot, and a whole lot more change is coming. The song is about trying to look forward while wondering what we’re willing to lose along the way, and wishing for just one more ride through the place I remember.
Louisiana has heard the “jobs and progress” pitch before. Many times. Sometimes it brought jobs. Sometimes we were left with the bill long after the money moved on. Maybe once everything has a dollar value attached to it, it gets hard to understand the value of something that doesn’t.
So — here’s a little song about an ugly green Ford, my dad, Highway 82, and a piece of Louisiana I hope we don’t realize was priceless only after it’s gone.
Lyrics
“Highway 82”
Lyrics by Dane DeValcourt
[Verse 1]
Daddy's old Ford was faded green
Rust hanging off the passenger side
I hated being seen in that thing
Now I'd give anything for one more ride
Window down, gun across the seat
Blackbirds rising from the cane
We were headed south on 82
And I can almost go there again
[Chorus]
Down Highway 82
Where the marsh runs into the blue
I couldn't wait to leave back then
Now I wish I could go back again
Some things change, some disappear
Some just live inside of you
I still find that boy sometimes
Down Highway 82
[Verse 2]
Teal at daylight, crabs on a string
Shrimp in the net, gar on the line
Gators watching from the canal
We never thought we were killing time
"Jump" came loud through that old Ford
"Red Red Wine" some years on through
The songs kept changing as I got older
But I kept coming down 82
[Chorus]
Down Highway 82
Where the marsh runs into the blue
I couldn't wait to leave back then
Now I wish I could go back again
Some things change, some disappear
Some just live inside of you
I still find that boy sometimes
Down Highway 82
[Bridge]
They've cut these marshes up before
And called the changing shoreline progress
Now they're reaching for the stars
And maybe that's what comes next
I ain't against tomorrow
I just know what time can do
And I hope there's still some old Louisiana
Left along 82
[Final Chorus]
Down Highway 82
Windows down, the old songs coming through
That beat-up Ford I hated then
Lord, I'd love to see it again
You can't keep a place from changing
You can't make the years undo
But there's still a piece of Daddy and me
Down Highway 82
[Outro]
Faded green and a busted fender
Funny what you remember