Wagon Wheel

by Ketch Secor

Headed down south to the land of the pines
And I'm thumbing my way into North Caroline
Staring up the road
And pray to God I see headlights

I made it down the coast in seventeen hours
Picking me a bouquet of dogwood flowers
And I'm a hoping for Raleigh
I can see my baby tonight

Running from the cold up in New England
I was born to be a fiddler in an old-time string band
My baby plays the guitar
I pick a banjo now

The North country winters keep getting me now
Lost my money playing poker so I had to up and leave
But I ain't turning back
To living that old life no more

Walking to the south out of Roanoke
I caught a trucker out of Philly, had a nice long toke
But he's a headed west from the Cumberland Gap
To Johnson City, Tennessee

And I gotta get a move on fit for the sun
I hear my baby calling my name
And I know that she's the only one
And if I die in Raleigh
At least I will die free