Marion's Kentucky hometown of Louisville and neighboring Bullitt County have been ravaged by the heroin and meth epidemic decimating rural America. Marion's home state is unfortunately in the top five in the country in terms of overdose deaths. As with many things, there is not one simple cause to point to, but in the song, Marion describes the development of major highways and the change to the agrarian culture as a contributing factor - three major US interstates (I-65, I-64, and I-71) all converge in the Louisville area and with it bring easy access/transport for the drug trade.
Lyrics
By Marion Halliday 2016-all rights reserved
V 1 - The grass grows blue in the town where I was born. In Autumn we'd cut patterns taking hayrides in the corn. We'd hang tobacco from the beams in my daddy's barn.The men would drink their whiskey by the fire when work was done- Oh Bullitt County, Oh Bullitt County - where you gone
V 2 - The caves that I played in as a kid up in the knobs,Sheltered slaves on their way to freedom from the South, But change has seeped through the town like water on limestone. Its slowly carved away the good our lives were built on. Oh Bullitt County, Oh Bullitt County-where you gone?
BR: So they built a super-highway, runs right thru our town. From the Gulf coast to the Great Lakes -its a thousand miles long.
Progress can bring problems, no matter what they say, - the bluegrass can turn to brown and the corn fields rot away.
V 3 - The Jesusp brothers were the first to plant that deadly crop - In the woods by the Armory they started out with pot.Now they're cooking up a storm behind my daddy's barn and the kids are cutting school to cut some meth and Bullitt County's gone. .Its gone, its gone . . .
V 4 - Cicadas hum in the night as we stare into the fire Nothing much to say- we're all so God-awful tired.We admire our handiwork in the chemical and smoke But no one plays in the caves or cuts patterns in the corn anymore . . . no more.