Up Against The Wall Redneck Mother by Jerry Jeff Walker

Story Behind the Song: A Bad Night Out Inspired Ray Wylie Hubbard's 'Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother'




Ray Wylie Hubbard got an early career boost when fellow Texan Jerry Jeff Walker included a cover of Hubbard's "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother" on seminal live album Viva Terlingua.


According to Hubbard, the tale Walker told in his famous live performance from Luckenbach is a true one from a time before Willie Nelson taught rednecks and hippies how to get along.


The story begins with Hubbard making a beer run in Red River, New Mexico at the local redneck joint D-Bar-D.


"I walked in and there were thirty or forty people drinking, including one old woman," he told Texas Monthly. "The jukebox stopped and they all turned and looked at me."


While Hubbard waited for the bartender to fetch a case of beer, the old woman and her son confronted Hubbard about his long hair.


"You want me to beat him up?," the son asked before Hubbard grabbed his case of beer and ran from the scene. In the parking lot, he spotted the pickup truck with a gun rack and a novelty bumper sticker that made it into the song.