"Red Dirt Girl" lyrics
(Acoustic Live)
(originally by Emmylou Harris)
Me and my best friend Lillian
And her blue tick hound dog, Gideon
Sittin' on the front porch cooling in the shade
Singin' every song the radio played
Waitin' for the Alabama sun to go down
Two red dirt girls in a red dirt town, me and Lillian
Across the red dirt line, just a little southeast of Meridian
She loved her brother, I remember back when
He was fixin' up a '49 Indian
He told her, "Little sister, gonna ride the wind
Up around the moon and back again"
He never got further than Vietnam
I was standin' there with her when the telegram comes for Lillian
Now he's lyin' somewhere about a million miles from Meridian
She said there's not much hope for a red dirt girl
Somewhere out there in a great big world
That's where I'm bound
And the stars might fall on Alabama
But one of these days I'm gonna swing my hammer down
Away from this red dirt town
It's gonna make a joyful sound
She grew up tall, and she grew up thin
Buried that old dog, Gideon
By a crepe myrtle bush in the back of the yard
Her daddy turned mean, and her mama leaned hard
Got in trouble with a boy from town
Figured that she might as well settle down
So she dug right in
Across a red dirt line, just a little southeast of Meridian
Well, she tried hard to love him, but it never did take
It's just another way for the heart to break
So she learned to bend
One thing they don't tell you 'bout the blues when you got 'em
You keep on falling 'cause there ain't no bottom
There ain't know end
At least not for Lillian
Nobody knows when she started her skid
She was only twenty-seven, and she had five kids
Coulda been the whiskey
Coulda been the pills
Coulda been the dream she was trying to kill
But there won't be a mention in the news of the world
About the life and the death of a red dirt girl named Lillian
Who never got any further across the line than Meridian
And the stars might fall on Alabama
Tonight, she finally laid that hammer down
Without a sound
In the red dirt ground
And her blue tick hound dog, Gideon
Sittin' on the front porch cooling in the shade
Singin' every song the radio played
Waitin' for the Alabama sun to go down
Two red dirt girls in a red dirt town, me and Lillian
Across the red dirt line, just a little southeast of Meridian
She loved her brother, I remember back when
He was fixin' up a '49 Indian
He told her, "Little sister, gonna ride the wind
Up around the moon and back again"
He never got further than Vietnam
I was standin' there with her when the telegram comes for Lillian
Now he's lyin' somewhere about a million miles from Meridian
She said there's not much hope for a red dirt girl
Somewhere out there in a great big world
That's where I'm bound
And the stars might fall on Alabama
But one of these days I'm gonna swing my hammer down
Away from this red dirt town
It's gonna make a joyful sound
She grew up tall, and she grew up thin
Buried that old dog, Gideon
By a crepe myrtle bush in the back of the yard
Her daddy turned mean, and her mama leaned hard
Got in trouble with a boy from town
Figured that she might as well settle down
So she dug right in
Across a red dirt line, just a little southeast of Meridian
Well, she tried hard to love him, but it never did take
It's just another way for the heart to break
So she learned to bend
One thing they don't tell you 'bout the blues when you got 'em
You keep on falling 'cause there ain't no bottom
There ain't know end
At least not for Lillian
Nobody knows when she started her skid
She was only twenty-seven, and she had five kids
Coulda been the whiskey
Coulda been the pills
Coulda been the dream she was trying to kill
But there won't be a mention in the news of the world
About the life and the death of a red dirt girl named Lillian
Who never got any further across the line than Meridian
And the stars might fall on Alabama
Tonight, she finally laid that hammer down
Without a sound
In the red dirt ground
