Well, I may have finally figured out how to get myself in trouble with YouTube.

Apparently, all it takes is a Texas country boy, an acoustic guitar and a song made famous by four of the biggest names in country music.

A few days ago, I posted a short video from one of my TikTok livestreams where I was covering “Highwayman” by The Highwaymen. If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that’s one of my favorite songs.

Willie Nelson. Waylon Jennings. Kris Kristofferson. Johnny Cash.

Four legends.

One heck of a song.

I took a 2½-minute clip from my livestream and posted it as a YouTube Short, figuring it would be a good way to start putting some regular content over there.

And, believe it or not, it actually started doing pretty well.

For about 15 minutes.

Then came the notification.

YouTube informed me that my Short had been blocked.

The message said:

“Your Short ‘🤠🎸 Highwayman — The Highwaymen | Acoustic Country Cover’ can’t be played because it contains claimed content that exceeds the length limits set by the copyright holder.”

Well… alrighty then.

I’m still trying to figure out exactly what that means.

I understand copyright. Songwriters deserve to be paid for their work, and I have absolutely no problem with artists and publishers protecting their music.

I also understand that when I cover somebody else’s song, I’m singing a song that somebody else wrote. I’m not claiming “Highwayman” as my own.

But this particular situation caught me a little off guard.

The claimant listed in the notification appeared to be an organization based somewhere in Latin America.

Now, I honestly have no idea why that organization was associated with the claim, and I’m certainly not saying they did anything wrong. I just found the whole thing a little strange.

I’m sitting here thinking…

Willie, Waylon, Kris and Johnny aren’t from Brazil.

At least I’m pretty sure they aren’t.

And for the record, I have a Texas accent, not a Brazilian accent! 😂

Maybe there’s some complicated copyright arrangement that I don’t understand. Maybe the system simply matched my recording to the song and the claim came through automatically. Maybe the length of my 2½-minute Short had something to do with it.

Who knows?

I’m just a country singer with a guitar. I’m not exactly sitting around the house studying international music copyright law.

So rather than spend the next three days trying to figure out who owns what, in what country, and why my Texas version of “Highwayman” apparently got somebody’s attention, I deleted the video and went on about my business.

But it did leave me scratching my head.

I’ve seen people covering “Highwayman” all over YouTube, Facebook and TikTok. Acoustic versions. Full-band versions. Sing-alongs. All kinds of different performances.

So why did mine get flagged?

I honestly don’t know.

And that’s the frustrating part.

I’ve had my YouTube account for several years, but I haven’t really used it very much. Lately, I’ve been trying to change that.

My plan was to start posting regularly, build the channel up, and eventually work toward doing some multistreaming between TikTok and YouTube.

It seemed like a pretty good plan.

Then YouTube said, “Hold my beer.”

Well, technically, I suppose YouTube didn’t say that.

But you get the idea.

I’m not trying to become the next big YouTube sensation overnight. I’m just trying to share some music, build an audience and give folks another place to find me.

I don’t mind following the rules.

What I don’t like is not understanding the rules.

Especially when you’re sitting in your house in Texas, playing an acoustic guitar and singing a country song you love.

So now I’m trying to decide whether I should keep putting the effort into YouTube or just concentrate on the platforms where I already have a good thing going.

Maybe I’ll figure it out.

Maybe somebody reading this will know exactly what happened and can explain it to me.

If you’ve had something similar happen with a cover song, I’d really like to hear about it.

Did YouTube flag your video?

Was it a Short?

How long was it?

Did you figure out what caused the claim?

Because apparently, I have some homework to do before I wander any farther into the YouTube wilderness.

And if you’ve ever wondered what happens when a Texas country singer accidentally wanders into the international copyright department…

Well, apparently, the answer involves a lot of head scratching.

And possibly helicopters.

Because if you happen to see a fleet of black helicopters flying low over Central Texas, I’m just going to assume the copyright police finally found me.

I’ll be out there running down a dirt road with my guitar, yelling:

“I SWEAR I’M FROM TEXAS!” 😂

Hopefully the Brazilians don’t get upset about this and send the black helicopters after me.

To my friends in Brazil, I mean no disrespect whatsoever. Y’all are welcome to listen to my music anytime.

Just please leave the helicopters parked.

I’ve got songs to play.

And a YouTube channel to figure out.