[Verse 1] There’s a banjo hangs in Martha’s house By a nail above the stove No one’s touched it since her husband died Twenty winters gone and cold Still at dusk when weather changes And the storm comes through the gap You can hear those strings go murmuring Like a hand is coming back [Verse 2] Folks say she don’t hear a thing now That she’s old and hard as bark But I seen her stop her sweeping When the fifth string starts in dark She just stands there by the table With her jaw set like a stone As if grief is not a feeling But a room she still lives in alone [Chorus] Widow’s banjo Whisper low Tell the boards what they already know Widow’s banjo Rattle thin There’s a dead man’s hand in the weather again [Verse 3] He was mean when whiskey found him Meaner still when crops went bad But she loved him like the hillside Loves the snow it never asked to have That’s the curse of old devotion It will outlive flesh and bone So she leaves that banjo hanging Like a grave marked in her home [Bridge] Some instruments keep music Some keep something worse A tune can be a blessing Or a body for a curse [Final Chorus] Widow’s banjo Whisper low Tell the boards what they already know Widow’s banjo Rattle thin There’s a dead man’s hand in the weather again
