[INTRO — solitary clawhammer banjo, soft wind] [Deep Southern baritone] Well... There it is... End of the trail... [Long pause] Lookin' back... It seems a whole lot farther... [Verse 1 — warm Appalachian folk, distant atmospheric guitars] I remember every hill... That damn near broke my back... Every crooked mile... Every time I lost the track... Blisters on my heels... Blood dried in my shoes... Bones that broke... Hearts did too... Storms that caught me... Cold without a fire... Nights I swore... I'd walk no higher... But lookin' back now... From where I stand... Funny how the hurt... Ain't what I remember best... [Fiddle enters] [Chorus — warm, majestic metal and Appalachian folk] IT WAS WORTH... EVERY MILE... Every blister... Every trial... Every fall... Every scar... Every night... Beneath the stars... I'd walk it all... Again... Just to see... What I have seen... [Metal falls into warm fiddle and banjo] [Verse 2 — deep Southern baritone] I remember spring... Breaking through the snow... Summer thunder... Shaking me below... Autumn burning... Red across the hills... Winter teaching me... How beautiful... Stillness feels... I saw things... That frightened me... Things I still... Can't rightly name... Watched the mountains... Swallowed by storms... And morning... Give 'em back again... Met the wild... Learned its law... I was never... Big at all... [Quietly] That made everything... Bigger... [Instrumental rise] [Chorus — enormous, uplifting] IT WAS WORTH... EVERY MILE... Every heartbreak... Every trial... Every wound... That time could mend... Even knowing... Where it'd end... I'd walk it all... Again... For the privilege... Of having been... [HARD CUT — wind] [Bridge — low baritone, almost spoken] Now the trail... Stops beneath my feet... No more markers... Left to read... Behind me... Miles of living... Ahead... [Pause] Nothing I can see... [Very distant fiddle] But I've learned something... Walking mountains... A bend in the trail... Ain't always... The end of the trail... Sometimes... You just can't see... Where it goes... From here... [Slow atmospheric build] [Final Chorus — huge, warm, transcendent] SO HERE'S TO... EVERY MILE!!! Every mountain... Every trial... Every broken bone... And every mended heart... Every ending... Every start... If I had one life... And this was mine... Then Lord... What a beautiful... Walk... It was... [Extreme instruments gradually disappear] [OUTRO — solitary banjo and fiddle] [Deep Southern baritone] My trail here... Is ended... [Footsteps stop] [Long silence] [Whispered] But I wonder... What other trails... Might be waitin'... Over yonder... [Soft wind] [One distant bird call] [Footstep] [Pause] [Another footstep — now beyond the listener] [Banjo plays a new, unfamiliar melody] [Forest ambience] [End]
