Her dad bred quarter horses the never win
Her mother left them when she wasn't even ten
He sold their place and then
They got by following the race circuit
Once she cried herself to sleep
She begged her dad to take them back to their valley
To her mother and the cottonwood trees
Their old house and her horse Lazy
Her dad gave her wine coolers by 13
Then he lost his two best horses in Albuquerque
He came and took his truck and trailer too
He got on a drunk, and he never came back

Oh, Holly
Holly the Hustle, they called her by 16
Livin' with a handicap in his 50's
He taught her to drink jack and ginger
from the moment she'd wake
Follow him around and do whatever he'd say
She fell in love with him, a desperate kid
They lived out of a Seville, drivin' through the Western states
In Los Alamitos, he got into a scrape
He got shot at a motel, but she escaped

Oh, Holly
The Hustle (Holly the Hustle)
Holly the Hustle
Oh, I know it's a hard world
When there ain't no one comin' for you
And the nights keep droppin' you harder and harder
Oh, Holly
The Hustle (Holly the Hustle)
Holly the Hustle

Holly the Hustle got beat up
By a man in El Paso she misjudged
She was 19 with two broken ribs
Three busted fingers and nowhere to live
She healed up in Phoenix and worked a married man
Took him for sixty grand
She moved to Pasadena and it worked the same
But he left her in the San Anita Inn drunk and bleedin'

Oh, Holly
The Hustle (Holly the Hustle)
Holly the Hustle

(Holly the Hustle)
(Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo)
(Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo)
Oh, and the nights keep droppin' you harder and harder
(Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo)
Holly the Hustle
Holly the Hustle
Oh, and the nights (Holly the Hustle)
Holly the Hustle
Holly the Hustle
Oh, and the nights