Ten Degrees and Getting Colder - Nanci Griffith

He was standing by the highway

With a sign that just said Mother

When he heard a driver coming

About a half a mile away

So he held the sign up higher

Where no decent soul could miss it

It was ten degrees or colder

Down by Boulder Dam that day

He was raised up in Milwaukee

Though he never was that famous

He was just a road musician

To the taverns he would go

Singing songs about the ramblin'

The lovin' girls and gamblin'

How the world fell on his shoulders

Back in Boulder I don’t know

Chorus

And she told him she would take him

For a ride in the morning sun

Back in Boulder he had told her

I don’t know when, I’ve had a better friend

It was out in Arizona

That he heard the lady listening

To each word that he was saying

To each line that he would write

So he sat down at her table

And they talked about the weather

98.6 and rising down by Boulder Dam that night

Chorus

Now he’s traded off his Martin

Though his troubles ain’t over

His feet are almost frozen and the sun is sinking low

Won’t you listen to me brother, if you ever loved your mother

Please pull off on the shoulder, if you’re goin' Milwaukee way

It’s ten degrees and getting colder down by Boulder Dam today