Table & Tavern Song

Table & Tavern Song

This song evolved from the many visits we paid to Hunter's Table and Tavern, Rhame, North Dakota, while conducting the Historic Architectural Survey of Bowman County for the State Historical Society of North Dakota in 1997. At that time the place was still rocking and rolling with the oil play. The tune is a variation of the cowboy standard, "Rye Whiskey." The text makes reference to the architectural peculiarity of the building, which was constructed by the technique known as cordwood masonry. Hunter's Table & Tavern is listed in Oases of the Great American Desert.

Table & Tavern Song
Copyright 1997 Tom Isern
If you're looking for a hot time, gonna find one right here
When the roughnecks and the cowhands come in for a beer.

I'll eat when I'm hungry, drink when I'm dry--
At the Table and Tavern I'll live 'til I die.
The walls are of cordwood and mortar well laid,
With a bottle of whiskey the workmen were paid.

The roof is of scoria rock laid on plank,
And the tumbleweeds growing upon it are rank.