A Guitar and a Song [Intro] [Slow, gentle acoustic guitar intro with a simple, melancholic fingerpicking pattern] [Lone, sustained steel guitar note fades in and out softly] [Verse 1] [Slow, steady, like a train on a long haul] Sun dips low behind the ridge, turnin' gold to dusty grey. Another day soon done, Lord knows, and I've still got things to say. Dirt don't wash right off these boots, that red clay clings to everything, And the sound of crickets in the corn is the only choir I hear sing. [Chorus] [Acoustic guitar opens up slightly, steel guitar answers the vocal] 'Cause all I ever had was a guitar and a song, To keep this freight train heartbeat rollin' all night long. From the back forty field to this steel rail line, This tired old country is a friend of mine. Yeah, a guitar and a song, that's all I need to be, Just a whisper carryin' on the wind of the back country. [Verse 2] [Pull back again, intimate vocal, fingerpicked acoustic] I left home young with calloused hands, left the plow behind the shed. Felt a bigger pull than growin' things, a little voice inside my head. The rail yard smells of oil and dust, a lonesome, bitter kind of sweet. I learned to read the rhythm there, the clickin' of the iron feet. We'd jump a boxcar after dark, lay a blanket on the floor, And the wind would sing an empty hymn right through the cracks in the door. [Chorus] [Fuller acoustic strum, steady brushed drums, restrained steel guitar] 'Cause all I ever had was a guitar and a song, To keep this freight train heartbeat rollin' all night long. From the back forty field to this steel rail line, This tired old country is a friend of mine. Yeah, a guitar and a song, that's all I need to be, Just a whisper carryin' on the wind of the back country. [Bridge] [Music softens, slight pause] [Fingerpicking returns; steel guitar takes a slow, bending solo between vocal lines] There's a beauty in the loneliness, a truth the city don't know. The way the moon just floods the fields, and makes the milkweed softly glow. I see a thousand perfect stars, reflected in the river slow. And every time I sing this tune, it tells me where I gotta go. [Final Chorus] [Build gently; warm acoustic guitars, subtle drums, steel guitar swelling behind the vocal] 'Cause all I ever had was a guitar and a song, To keep this freight train heartbeat rollin' all night long. From the back forty field to this steel rail line, This tired old country is a friend of mine. Yeah, a guitar and a song, that's all I need to be, Just a whisper carryin' on the wind of the back country. [Outro] [Fingerpicking slows down, becoming sparser] [Steel guitar plays a final, long, dying note] Yeah, the back country... [Spoken, low] Just a guitar and a song... [Last chord fades slowly]
