Pipeliner Blues — Del Ray Hillian

By the time Del Ray Hillian recorded “Pipeliner Blues” in 1973, the song had already lived several lives. It began as a Moon Mullican number back in the forties—one of those rib-tickling, hip-swinging hillbilly boogies that Moon could toss off between gospel sets and beer-joint romps. Mullican sang it with a wink, every “line-layin’” and “pipe-dreamin’” phrase dripping with double meaning.

Del Ray, though, didn’t wink. He sang it straight.
Onstage in the little bars and VFW halls that still clung to the bones of the old Chitlin’ Circuit, Del Ray treated “Pipeliner Blues” like a hard-luck confession rather than a bluesy come-on. The honky-tonk piano stayed, but the sly grin was gone—replaced by the weary pride of a man who honestly believed the song was about union labor and a day’s work done right.

That might have had something to do with family. Del Ray’s uncle, Clede Ray, was a real union pipeliner out of Scottsdale, Alabama, and the Hillian clan spoke of him in tones usually reserved for saints and prizefighters. To Del Ray, “layin’ line all day” wasn’t a euphemism—it was a vocation.

The record never found its audience. Too bluesy for country radio, too country for blues radio, it fell through the cracks just like its singer. Still, among those who heard him live, Del Ray’s version lingered—a curious relic of a vanishing South where the Chitlin’ Circuit met the honky-tonk, and a white boy from Sand Mountain could belt a Black-born blues without irony or guile.

He might not have understood all the song’s meanings, but he sure believed every word.