Let Her Go

Lyrics

My brothers, my sisters, my father and my mother We were all held together with prayers and fishing line My brothers caught the fever, my mother nursed them dearly She held on 'til I was 4, in 1919 mamma died Let her go, let her go As the tears and sorrow flow Restore this soul within me Free my heart and let her go We grew up hard and hungry beside the fields of plenty Our father made his wages laying brick and stone and steel We ate what we could carry, we cast our nets out early We cursed the northern truckers as they stole our life away Let her go, let her go As the tears and sorrow flow Restore this soul within me Free my heart and let her go I left my home and family when I was barely twenty To take a northern city and return a richer man I crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and then the Mason-Dixon I drove until I came unto the Great Lake Erie strand Let her go, let her go As the tears and sorrow flow Restore this soul within me Free my heart and let her go Let her go, don't let the past come between The life I'm living now and the one that's in my dreams I went to work in Cleveland among the steel and concrete I watched the iron sunset as I pulled into the lot I headed for the diner where the truckers leave their orders I flirted with the waitress and I dreamed of going home Let her go, let her go As the tears and sorrow flow Restore this soul within me Free my heart and let her go Let her go, don't let the past come between The life I'm living now and the one that's in my dreams I married in the city. I worked and raised a family I saw my mother's image in my wife and daughter's eyes I felt the rage within me well up and burn right through me My love for them was true but I could only criticize Let her go, let her go As the tears and sorrow flow Restore this soul within me Free my heart and let her go I handed down my sadness like a tattered worn out suitcase I hated to admit it, but I never could move on My daughters held my anger. Their mother took it with her In 1998 she fell and finally made it home Let her go, let her go As the tears and sorrow flow Restore this soul within me Free my heart and let her go Let her go, let her go As the tears and sorrow flow Restore this soul within me Free my heart and let her go