Leaving Louisiana In the Broad Daylight
By Don Williams
Written by Rodney Crowell & Donivan Cowart
Album: Epilogue: The Cellar Tapes (2026)

Drop D

      D
Well, Mary got to running with a traveling man, left her mama crying with her head in her hand
       G                  D
Such a sad case, so brokenhearted
          G
She say, "Mom, I gotta go, I gotta get out of here, gotta get out of town, I'm tired of hanging around
        G                   D 
I gotta roll on between the ditches"
             D
It's just an ordinary story about the way things go 'round and around, nobody knows
        G                  D              G                  D  
But the highway goes on forever, that old highway goes on forever


Lord, she never woulda done it if she hadn't got drunk, if she hadn't started running with a traveling man
If she hadn't started taking those crazy chances
She say, "Daughter, let me tell you 'bout the traveling kind, everywhere he's going, it's a very short time
He'll be long gone before you know it, he'll be long gone before you know it"


Chorus:
          Bm                            A
She say, "Never have I known it when it felt so good
G                           D           
Never have I knew it when I knew I could
Bm                           A
Never have I done it when it looks so right
G
Leaving Louisiana in the broad daylight"


Well, it's down in the swamps where anything goes, it's alligator bait and the bars don't close
It's the real thing down in Louisiana
Did you ever see a Cajun when he really got mad, he really got trouble like a daughter going bad
It gets real hot down in Louisiana

The stranger better move it or he's gonna get killed
He's gonna have to get it or a shotgun will
It ain't no time for lengthy speeches
There ain't no time for lengthy speeches

Chorus

It's just an ordinary story about the way things go
Around and around, nobody knows
But the highway goes on forever
That old highway goes on forever