Child Of These Roads

(album: Troubadour In A Time Quake - 1999)

In the middle of town was a long black highway, rolling on forever,
With music running through my veins, I was gonna play or never,
Look back, I was barely legal, summer of eighty-two,
The asphalt was shining, the sky was dazzling blue

And as the towns rolled by like barking dogs, nipping at my heels,
Something in me was changing, fast as the speed of my wheels,
America was everything and nothing like I thought she'd be,
A holy roadside attraction for a starry-eyed kid me,
A starry-eyed kid me

I was a child of these roads, a child of these roads,
A wide black river shining, I rode her everywhere she wanted to go,
Just a child of these roads

The first time I found Memphis, I saw the old Sun studios,
Turned into a souvenir shop and learned the way things go,
I just drove past Graceland, went down south to New Orleans,
I played a delta scarred by mini-malls and automatic banking machines,
Automatic banking machines

I was a child of these roads, a child of these roads,
A wide black river shining, I rode her everywhere she wanted to go,
Just a child of these roads

So, from a boy with a piano in his truck, the knave I used to be,
To all you souls in those roadside joints, thanks for being kind to me,
You showed me how to love with all my heart, how to sing when I had to cry,
How to take each day as it comes and let each day go by,
Let each day go by

And I guess I never did learn to stay in one place too long,
So when my time comes, just scatter my ashes on the road and sing this song

There goes a child of these roads, a child of these roads,
A wide black river shining, I rode her everywhere she wanted to go,
Just a child of these roads,
Just a child, still a child,
Just a child, still a child,
Just a child of these roads