I caught my wife with another man
It cost me ninety nine
Down in Georgia prison
Close to the Florida line
Well I'd been here for two long years
I finally made the warden my friend
He sentenced me to a life of ease
Taking care of Ol' Red

Now Ol' Red he's the damnedest
Dog that I've ever seen
He's got a nose that can
Smell a two day trail
He's a four legged trackin' machine
You can consider yourself mighty lucky
To get past the gators and the quicksand beds
'Cause all these years that I've been here
Nobody got past Red

Hear the warden sang come on somebody
Why don't you run
Ol' Red's itchin' to have a little fun
Get my lantern get my gun
Red'll have you treed 'fore the mornin' comes

I paid off the guard and
I slipped out a letter
To my cousin up in Tennessee
Now he brought down a blue tick hound
She was pretty as she could be
So we staked her up in the swampland
About a mile just south of the gate
And I'd take Ol' Red for his evenin' walk
Let him go and wait

Hear the warden sang come on somebody
Why don't you run
Ol' Red's itchin' to have a little fun
Get my lantern get my gun
Red'll have you treed 'fore the mornin' comes

Now Ol' Red got real used to seein'
His lady fried every night
So I kept him away for three or four days
And waited 'til the time got right
Well I made my run with the evenin' sun
And I smiled when I heard they let Red out
'Cause I was headed north to Tennessee
And Ol' Red he was headed south

Hear the warden sang come on somebody
Why don't you run
Ol' Red's itchin' to have a little fun
Get my lantern get my gun
Red'll have you treed 'fore the mornin' comes

Now there's red haired blue ticks
All in the South
Love got me in here and love got me out