A week or two ago I was driving to Oklahoma to visit my parents, Gene & Jessie Pittman, and I heard this song on The Range, KHYI 95.3, which is as far as I know, Dallas’ only Americana station. You can see the station’s site here:) This is my favorite Dalls/Fort Worth radio station. In my many travels to the area, if I’m not listening to a book on tape, (thanks to Beautiful Bonnie Blue of Region XI), or listening to a song over and over again to learn the lyrics, I’m listening to NPR or the Range. As I’m a guitar player, this song registered–yes, even cutting into my selfish heart a little (not as much as it should). I’ve always liked songs, stories, and movies about guitar players. (“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” by the Beatles, “Tennessee Flat-Box” by Johnny Cash, “This Old Guitar” by John Denver
“Tonight I Just Need My Guitar” by Jimmy Buffett, and many others). Guitars to guitarists are like swords to Vikings–we name them (B.B. King named his Lucille, my Taylor is Fionna) and we revere them.
As far as I know, Southern Missive is the only site to post the lyrics to this song. I transcribed them, so if I made a mistake, please let me know. The chord changes I figured out. If you want to purchase the song, you can do that here: If you have a song you want me to run down and find the lyrics for, let me know and I’ll do my best.
Mama Said (Pick in His Pocket) by Take Root : Lyrics and Chords
Come all you young fair ladies,
Hear what I have to say
Don’t marry a man with a pick in his pocket
Or you’ll live to curse the day
You’ll never have the things you need
To make a decent life,
If you marry a man with a pick in his pocket,
You’ll be a poor man’s wife.
He’ll leave you in the evening,
When the sun is going down,
You’ll sit home all by yourself,
While he’s out on the town,
Cause he don’t care about nothing,
Except to play a guitar and sing,
He’ll come home with just a pick in his pocket,
And a pick won’t buy a thing.
Now when you were a small girl,
You thought the whole thing through,
You’d grow up and you’d marry a man
Who’d take good care of you,
So heed this word of warning,
Or your future will be dim,
If you marry a man with a pick in his pocket,
You’ll be supporting him.
And when you lie there sleeping,
Dreaming dreams of bliss,
He’ll stumbling through the door
And wake you with a drunken kiss
And you’ll know the dream is over
But it’ll be too late by then
Cause you married a man with a pick in his pocket,
Look at the mess you’re in.
Cause you married a man with a pick in his pocket,
Look at the mess you’re in.
(They play it in Bb. Capo Fret III.) If you listen to the song, you can easily hear the chord changes. Here’s the chord progression of a whole verse:
G C G C G F C D C D G C G Bb C G
SATURDAY Sept. 13
Tomorrow morning, I’ll be at the Daily Harvest Deli & Bakery, performing. I’m so looking forward to it and I wish Teresa tremendous success with the debut signing of her cookbook. Sunday, Tom and I will be performing for the Celtic Society in West Monroe.
Thursday, I was at the Library Harvest of Region XI in Fort Worth. I’ll have some photos and information to post about that event and my day (today with my Aunt Winnie) in Garland, Texas tomorrow night.
I’m from the lake texoma area and i listen to the range religously and i have heard this song one time and loved it. I have been looking for the chords, lyrics, artist…anything i could and this is the only thing on the whole world wide web i can find on this song so thank you very much.
I’ve been trying to find out the name of this song and who sings it on and off for about 2 months now. I finally stumbled on the right combination of words and phrases on Google which brought me here. I also heard it on KHYI. Thanks!
me three.
Hi Ricky, Sorry it took me so long to discover this blog. I wrote this song, and yes, you pretty much nailed it on the chords and lyrics. I think maybe Nancy put her capo on the first fret and played in A position, while i was, as you said, on the 3rd fret in G position. Thanks for liking the tune . That’s always a good feeling.