Carolina

by Robert Earl Keen

The sweet smell of nighttime rides on the breeze
The river is winding through the hickory trees
The redbones are howling down by Wilson's Bridge
The lawmen stand waiting upon Deadman's Ridge

Ooo Carolina, so dark I can't see
Ooo Carolina, won't you let me go free?

I came here with Lily a year just last fall
We left her old daddy back in Donegal
We made us a home place of Black Mountain stone
But one cold winter morning I woke up alone

Days full of silence are so incomplete
Nights without Lily I took to the streets
In the streets of Asheville I channeled my pain
'Til one raging black night I slept in the rain

I dreamed of a refuge, a red velvet world
And I swore my sweet Lily was one of the girls
I loved her so madly, I loved her so long
I woke with my dream girl, but her life was all gone

Ooo Carolina, so dark I can't see
Ooo Carolina, won't you let me go free?
Love has no boundary, sorrow no end
And the lawmen of Asheville have no mercy in them