Clean Soul & Dirty Hands

(album: Swark Boys - 2021)

They told me to move on up to Nashville
You're gonna be a star someday
Trade them county roads for the city lights
You're gonna have to change your ways
That's just not an option
No, that ain't how I was raised
I'm not gonna leave that book at the altar
Just to get up on that stage

So here I stand
On the ground that I grew up on
Not afraid to bust my ass
Give the shirt off my back
To help someone
And this is me
And that's just the way I am
So here I stand
Clean soul and dirty hands

All I know is corn rows, potholes, and Wintergreen skoal
Backroads and bass boats, fishing with my kinfolks
All I do is sling mud, lock hubs, knock subs
Sip suds from a Dixie cup and spit dip in a mud jug
This is my, my roots run deep, you couldn't pull 'em with a Hum V
'Cause I'm a smart boy from DeQueen doing big things but lowkey
Running dogs, gigging frogs in our overalls
Like papaw tree saps all over that saw
'Cause I cut logs and then haul them
To the stabbing cabin, where it goes down
Like snow in aspen, that's right
Ain't nothing changed, captain
I'm still the same backwoods boy, I have been
I laugh when I'm asked if I'll ever leave, hell nah
I Arkansas raised, I'm a hog, dog

Here I stand
On the ground that I grew up on
Not afraid to bust my ass
Give the shirt off my back
To help someone
And this is me
And that's just the way I am
So here I stand (yeah, here I stand)
With clean soul and dirty hands

Momma tried to teach me manners
Daddy taught me everything else
Taught me how to swing a hammer
How to make a man out of myself
So I just focus on my family
Keep God in everything we do
Because I know that when I go
All that matters is how they remember you

Here I stand
On the ground that I grew up on
Not afraid to bust my ass
Give the shirt off my back
To help someone
And this is me
And that's just the way I am
So here I stand (yeah, here I stand)
With clean soul and dirty hands