[Intro] [Fingerpicked acoustic guitar] [Solo harmonica drifting] [4 bars] [Verse 1] [Low register] [Intimate conversational density] [Upright bass enters] I walked the road past seventeen pines The duffel bag was all I had I left this porch at seventeen — swore I'd never come walking back But dust don't hold the shape of time [Pre-Chorus] [Building lift] [Brushed kit enters] And I can see it up the hill One yellow window burning still The screen door's cracked, the hound knows my name — and I hear him call — [Chorus] [Full band] [High register] [Sparse sustained hook] [Lap steel swell] [Hard downbeat on "Come"] Come home My boy, my wandering, my own The porch light's been on every night you been gone Come home [Verse 2] [Low register] [Slightly fuller arrangement] [Light finger snaps on two and four] I never was the perfect son My daddy told me long ago "You don't gotta be perfect, boy — just come back where you belong" But shame kept me walking that road [Pre-Chorus] [Building lift] [Tight harmonies on the last line] And I can smell the woodsmoke rise I can see him through the pines He steps down off those porch boards — opens up his arms — he cries — [Chorus] [Full band] [Mandolin enters] [Soft backing harmonies] [Sparse sustained hook] Come home My boy, my wandering, my own The porch light's been on every night you been gone Come home [Bridge] [Key lift] [Lap steel crying] [Gritty passionate lead vocal] He don't just save me from the wreck He picks the broken pieces up and sets them back He's Redeemer and Repairer — mending what I couldn't mend And He leaves the porch light burning to the end [Breakdown] [Beat drops out] [A cappella] [Lonely harmonica] Come home... come home... [Final Chorus] [Band slams back on downbeat] [Full arrangement] [Soaring harmonies] Come home My boy, my wandering, my own The porch light's been on every night you been gone [A cappella tag] Come home [Outro] [Fingerpicked acoustic] [Harmonica fade] I'm comin' [Fade to silence]
