Dixie Lullaby

My father had skin like leather

hands like steel

from a lifetime spent in the cottonfields

though hed come home tired and dirty

almost everynight

he found the strength to smile at me and hold my mama tight

while that old transister radio would play the opry out in the hall

id sit and watch their shadows glide across the wall

and theyd dance to a dixie lullaby

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 and my old mans stubborn ways

it was college, work, and love

then the babies came

the youngest ones got his grandaddy's name

and in the early morning hours when my children could not sleep.

i'd rock them in my arms to a simple beat

and id sing them a dixie lullaby

hush baby dont 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

well 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