Okemah Waltz (Official Town Song of Okemah, Oklahoma)

From the Album It Takes a Lot of People

Water tower hot and cold
Home of Woody Guthrie
Twenty-seven starts and stops
Depending on where you’re going

Graveyard hill goes up, sways down
At night you see the city
Lights shining bright below
Through the treetops singing

Movie house 4th and Main
Star on the ceiling
When the music starts to play
You can see the plaster peeling

Okemah Kitchen Band
Spoons, jugs, and cymbals
People standing on the curb
To watch them tap and fiddle

Okemah, Okemah, Okemah my love
Beautiful Okemah
Okemah, Okemah, Okemah my love
Beautiful Okemah

Around the world I have been
Searching for a reason
Now that I am home again
It’s hard to think about leaving

Words & music by Larry Long
Copyright Larry Long 1987; renewed 2025 BMI

*Lyrics collectively written with youth from Okemah, Oklahoma. Okemah Waltz was voted by the Okemah City Council to be Okemah, Oklahoma’s Town Song.

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