George Jones - Old Brush Arbors

George Jones sings Old Brush Arbors in Love on the Hee Haw show in 1979

Jones's fondness for gospel music is well documented. In the 1989 documentary Same Ole Me, he recalls that he learned how to play the guitar at the church where his mother Clara, a devout woman, played piano. The church was run by Brother Burl Stephens (with whom Jones would credit as co-writer of several songs on his 1959 gospel album Country Church Time) and Sister Annie, who George remembered "taught me my first chords on the guitar, like C, G, and D and things like that, and I started hangin' out over there more often. She'd get her guitar and we'd pick and sing together...We used to do all the really old gospel songs." Jones love of gospel music actually predated his exposure to country music, which he would not hear until his family acquired their first radio. Jones would continue to record gospel albums throughout his career, including In a Gospel Way (1974) and The Gospel Collection (2003).

George Jones Old Brush Arbors Lyrics

 

I remember them so clearly,

Mom and dad loved them so dearly.

Old brush arbors by the side of the road.

Where I learned about salvation,

From the book of Revelation.

And in arbors by the side of the road.

 

Old brush arbors by the side of the road,

Where a sinner could lay down his heavy load.

It was in those old brush arbors,

Troubled souls found peaceful habor.

Brush arbors by the side of the road.

 

Many times I had departed,

From the way of life I started. 

In them arbors by the side of the road.

But each time the devil caught me,

I remember what they taught me.

In brush arbors by the side of the road.

 

Old brush arbors by the sude of the road,

Where the mighty light of God's great mercy flowed.

There was praying, shouting, singing,

Till the country side was ringing.

Brush arbors by the side of the road...