Dixie Lullaby

My father had skin like leather
Hands like steel
From a lifetime spent
In the cotton fields

Though he'd come home tired and dirty
Almost every night
He found the strength to smile at me
And hold my mama tight

While that old transistor radio
Would play the opry out in the hall
I'd sit and watch their shadows
Glide across the wall

And they'd dance to a Dixie lullaby
A picture of love beneath the southern sky
Oh my, what a beautiful life?
Just like a Dixie lullaby

I left home at 18
In a hand me down Chevrolet
Packed my mamas goodness
My old mans stubborn ways

It was college, work and love
Then the babies came
The youngest one got
His granddaddy's name

And in the early morning hours
When my children could not sleep
I'd rock them in my arms
To a Jimmy beat

I'd sing them a Dixie lullaby
Hush baby, don't you start to cry
Oh my, what a beautiful life?
Just like a Dixie lullaby

My father was a mountain of a man
That was the description that I gave
The morning that we laid him in his grave

There with my mama by his side, we said our last goodbye
To a man we thought would never die
As I stood there in the fields of amazing grace
Oh, how the tears ran down my face

And I sang him a Dixie lullaby
We'll meet again, by and by
Oh my, what a beautiful life?
Just like a Dixie lullaby

Oh my, what a beautiful life?
Just like a Dixie lullaby