I based this song on a minor character from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.  Muley Graves is one of the Joads' Oklahoma neighbors. When the bank evicts his family, Muley refuses to leave his land. Instead, he lets his wife and children move to California without him and stays behind to live outdoors.

Muley's Tears

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath really struck me and has stayed with me.  This song is based on  Rose of Sharon Joad, or Rosasharn, as her family called her.  She was a young woman of 19 years of age. At the start of The Grapes of Wrath she was married and recently pregnant. She is a classic young woman, filled with self-importance and unable to see past anything but her own situation.  Of course, there's a fair bit of my own personal story mixed in with this song, too.

Rosasharn

Oshel is a real person, although not the Oshel in this song.  But he's a sweet, good man and I thought his name too musical not to be in a song somehow, so I came up with this little fanciful love story.

Rusty Strings