Released: April 1, 1975

Songwriter: Dolly Parton

Producer: Ken Nelson (Country) Fuzzy Owen

[Verse 1]
I wanted more from life than four kids and a wife
And a job in a dark Kentucky mine
A twenty-acre farm with a shacky house and barn
That’s all I had and all I left behind
But at gambling, I was lucky, and so I left Kentucky
And left behind my woman and my kids
Into the gay casino in Nevada's town of Reno
This Kentucky gambler planned to get rich quick

[Chorus]
Kentucky gambler, who's going to love your woman in Kentucky?
Yeah and who's going to be the one to give her everything she needs?
Kentucky gambler, who's going to raise your children in Kentucky?
Who's going to keep them fed and keep them shoes on their feet?

[Verse 2]
There at the gambler's paradise, Lady Luck was on my side
And this Kentucky gambler played just right
Hey, I won at everything I played, I really thought I had it made
But I should have quit and gone on home that night
But when you love the greenback dollar, sorrow's always bound to follow
And Reno's dreams fade into neon amber
And Lady Luck, she'll lead you on, she'll stay awhile, and then she's gone
You better go on home, Kentucky gambler

[Bridge]
But a gambler never seems to stop till he loses all he's got
And with a money-hungry fever, I played on
I played till I'd lost all I'd won
I was right back where I'd started from
Then I started wanting to go home

[Chorus]
Kentucky gambler, there ain't nobody waiting in Kentucky
When I ran out, somebody else walked in
Kentucky gambler, looks like you ain't really very lucky
And it seems to me a gambler loses much more than he wins

[Outro]
Much more than he wins

Merle Haggard

Merle Ronald Haggard (6 April 1937 – 6 April 2016) was born in Oildale, California, little more than a railroad junction on the outskirts of Bakersfield. He became a singer-songwriter who is now a legend in country music. Often called the poet of the common man, he and his band helped create the “Bakersfield Sound”, characterized by electric guitar and vocal harmony. The style is honky tonk minimalist, with an immediate and honest sound that isn’t heard in the polished, Nashville recordings.

His parents moved from Oklahoma to California during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl days, and he was born in a converted railroad boxcar into abject poverty. His father died in 1945 when Merle was still a child, and that started his long line of trouble with the law. He started with truancy and runaway, and advanced to burglary and jail breaks. He finally found himself in San Quentin prison in 1958, but that was a blessing in disguise. Haggard was in the prison yard when Johnny Cash performed there in 1959, and with encouragement from his prison friends, he taught himself to play guitar. When he got out in 1960 he went back to Bakersfield and started playing covers in road-houses. He worked his way up to performing in small clubs in Las Vegas, where he got to brush shoulders with nationally known artists like Buck Owens, and that led to him meeting Johnny Cash. Cash was impressed and advised Haggard to write his own songs. “He said I should write what I know”, Haggard said, and to address his past directly in his songs. “I was bull-headed about my career. I didn’t want to talk about being in prison, but Cash said I should talk about it. That way the tabloids wouldn’t be able to. I said I didn’t want to do that and he said, ‘It’s just owning up to it.‘” Haggard took the advice and it became part of his legend.

Just a few of the songs that he is known for are “Okie from Muskogee”, “Cherokee Maiden”, “Mama Tried”“Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star”, “That’s the Way Love Goes” and “It’s All Going to Pot”.