Celebrating songs of Leelanau: Chris Skellenger’s “Old Yellow Dog”
Photo: Chris Skellenger (left) with Paul Koss (right)
From staff reports
Singer-songwriter and guitarist Chris Skellenger, who has played nearly every music venue and hot mic in the County, wrote “Old Yellow Dog” about 30 years ago as an homage to small towns.
The song was “inspired by trips I took from college back in the late ’70s, where—to a city kid—Leelanau looked like a place out of a Field & Stream magazine in a barber shop,” said Skellenger. “It was remote and wild. I expected to see a moose!
“The roads and beaches were pretty much empty. If you’re too young to have experienced the old Leelanau, you missed something special.”
Here are the lyrics to “Old Yellow Dog”:
On a bumpity country road
An ol’ yeller dog by my side
We’ve no particular place to go
We’re just gettin’ away for a ride
To some pick up drivin’ carharrdt wearin’
polka dancin, county fairin’
hillbilly part of the world
Where they love their neighbors without fences
and learn to live with the consequences
and wonder where the common sense has gone
Look at this one horse town
It’s the only one for miles around
It ain’t even on the map
what a treasure we have found
Ol Yeller starts to whine and beg
so we get out and stretch our legs
and wander thru this Norman Rockwell day
Past the tavern and the consignment shop
the mercantile and the old rail road stop
and up on blocks, an ancient chevrolet
There are giants in this land
and heroes in the mist
there’s a callous on every hand
and a rose in every fist
in this
pick up drivin’ carharrdt wearin’
polka dancin, county fairin’
hillbilly part of the world
Where they love their neighbors without fences
and learn to live with the consequences
and wonder where the common sense has gone
On a bumpity country road
An ol’ yeller dog by my side
We’ve no particular place to go
We’re just gettin’ away for a ride
With Ol Yeller fast asleep
curled up like a bug by the driver’s seat
we make our way along these streets and dream about our home
It’s so far away from rolling hills, and cedar trees, and whippoorwills
So far away, far away… from here.
On a bumpity country road
An ol’ yeller dog by my side
Previous installments in our Songs of Leelanau series featured The Accidentals’ “Michigan and Again,” Ingemar Johansson and Song of the Lakes’ “Pearl of America,” Laura Hood’s “Eddy Up,” Les Dalgliesh’s “The Ways of Leelanau,” Jeff Maharry’s “Good Harbor Bay,” Seth Bernard’s instrumental ode to the Manitou Islands, Blake Elliott’s “Small Town” and Louann Lechler’s “I’m Proud to Say I Live in Leelanau County.”
