Christmas Eve Blues

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Thought I'd revisit an old one, largely because I think it sounds good on the new guitar. I wrote this some years ago for an album done by the church I attended at the time. It had a large number of musicians and artists in the congregation, and one year, they asked a bunch of the musicians to each record a song for a Christmas album. I wasn't one of the people they asked. (Not unusual. There was a clique that I was never able or good enough to break into, and I never got the feeling there was ever that much respect for my music. Maybe there was, but I never felt it.) So I said, "Hey, what about me? I'd like to do a tune" and after some thought, they relented and said, "Sure, we've got room for one more." Then I started wondering what song I'd do and came to the conclusion there weren't any Christmas songs I liked. I realized I had talked myself into a tight spot. Finally, the day before I was supposed to go in and record my song, I realized that if there were no holiday songs I liked, I'd just write one. So I wrote this one the night before the recording session. A couple of notes: A 48-foot Wabash is a type of trailer pulled by semis. (They come in 48' and 53'.) The reference to I-10 and "a stretch of Texas highway" was a nod to Bill Morrissey, one of my favorite songwriting inspirations. He died last July, and if you're not familiar with his work, you owe it to yourself to do so.