The opening lines of the song caught my ear when I heard something about a crab basket. The verse goes:
“Hey fellas, you know how come they never put a lid on a crab basket?
I hear it’s cause them fishermen know them crabs keep each other down.
I meet people out on the road all the time in the same kind of casket
And I say “Man you got to get out of that old crab shack town.”
Good song from Todd Snider even if he’s a little incorrect about never putting a lid on a basket of crabs. My crab expert Shea says, “They’ll lay down once you put ’em in the walk in and cool ’em off. But when they’re hot, they’re coming out of the basket.”
Still, you get Snider’s point about being stuck someplace. Video below was filmed in East Nashville. Along with featuring back up singer Elizabeth Cook, it also contains several shots of honky tonk bars, convenience stores and Eastside characters. No pictures of old time country stores though; I guess the ones that are still around in Tennessee are all located in what Snider would refer to as crab shack towns.