Ode to Virginia
Down south there’s an old man
Plays on the corner of a street called Main
Down South there’s this old man
Ain't no one who knows his name

He plays a flattop made of plywood
Stomps on a suitcase he carries around
He buys new strings when he can
Living off the money from his last hoedown

That old man may taste of bourbon and ‘shine
He may smell like mustard gas and rose
But Vonnegut couldn’t write nothing better
Or take you down South like this man’s prose

He’ll sing, “Take me back to Virginia!”
Back before I had a name
Lay me in a golden field on mountainside
Let the blue sky fill my veins
Let the James carry me home
And wash away all my sins
Like an old dogwood I’ll die where I began
Can you taste the dust in his words?
Smell the earth of freshly turned fields?
Can you feel the salt of her virgin shores?
Hear him roar, it ain’t gonna yield

He’s cruised those lines, he’s ridden those roads, he’s roamed those hills
But road time don’t mean he ain’t got a home
Well, he fell into the bottle, and out of her lines, and broke his own heart
And since he’s been singing for a place he calls home

He’ll sing, “Take me back to Virginia!”
Back before I had a name
Lay me in a golden field on mountainside
Let the blue sky fill my veins
Let the James carry me home
And wash away all my sins
Like an old dogwood I’ll die where I began
Like an old dogwood I’ll die
Like and old dogwood I’ll die
Like and old dogwood I’ll die where I began