"Detour (There's a Muddy Road Ahead)" is a Western swing ballad written by Paul Westmoreland in 1945.
[1] The original version was by Jimmy Walker with Paul Westmoreland and His Pecos River Boys, issued around the beginning of November 1945.
Written in the first person, the song tells of the singer's regrets for the choices made in life.
Headed down life's crooked road Lots of things I never knowed, And because of me not knowin', I now pine.
Trouble got in the trail, Spent the next five years in jail, Should have read that detour sign.