That's a gem
It was
Uncle Dave Macon who wrote and recorded that song some time before Dalhart. The HonkingDuck site incorrectly say 1927, but it's Dalhart who made a cover - even copying Uncle Dave's joke. See if you can listen here:
http://honkingduck.com/78s/listen.php?s=20035B
"Hello, folks, it won't do to be without hope. Now, I never had hoped to get another good drink of good red liquor, but yesterday evening I played a few pieces and two gentlemen invited me up to their room, opened up a box, said, "Uncle Dave, here's water and glasses and sugar and lemon and everything. Now, what'll you have first?"
I said, "Give me that largest glass." I poured her out half full and begin to stir it with a spoon.
He said, "Now, what next?"
I said, "A little water to make her weak."
"What next?"
I says, "A little sugar to make her sweet."
He said, "What next?"
I says, "Put in a little lemon, now, to make her sour."
"Now, what next?"
"Now," I says, "pour her up brim full to give her the power."
Some folks says that a Ford won't run,
Just let me tell you what a Henry done,
She left Louisville about half past one,
Well, she got into Nashville at the setting of the sun.
Chorus: On the Dixie, on the Dixie Bee-line,
Gonna rise and shine, gonna stay up to time,
Rise and shine gwine to keep up to time,
When I ride in that Henry of mine.
Henry Ford went to Mussell Shoals,
To bring to people of the South pure gold,
Let him have it says oh, my Lord,
We'll all ride to heaven on a Henry Ford.
Chorus
That old Buick, said you treated me mean,
Took all my money for to buy gasoline,
She may be warm, but I don't know,
But a Buick won't come where a Henry will go.
Chorus
Went to the mountains for to get some booze,
The Henry Ford car was the one I choose,
The officers got right on me, I say,
I pulled her wide open and made my getaway.
Chorus
Everybody knows the Henry Ford car,
Everybody knows they're the best they are
You want to take a ride just get in a Ford,
And six or seven times say: Oh my Lord"
..and that was late in the model T's life - in the early teens the T actually was faster than most other cars on bad roads, due to light weight. In 1926, though, most every other car was faster. Perhaps Uncle Dave was impressed by the speed, since he spent 20 years following a mule train. Might have been the cheap Fords that forced him out of that buissness into his successful artist career.
Here's Uncle Dave late in life - but still quite the showman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tFetm5mTQA
Another song praising the Ford was "The little Ford rambled right along", here by Arthur Fields in 1914:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8zldu1OYSQ and Billy Murray in 1915:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gs_wqA8W_U
Back then, though, the grim reality often was: "He'd have to get under (to fix up his automobile)":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCIVLS55pe8&feature=related
