Old Rivers

Lyrics

[Verse 1] How old was I when I first seen Old Rivers? Well, just can't recall when he weren't around Well, that old man did a heap of work Spent his whole life walking plowed ground He had a one-room shack not far from us And well, we was about as poor as him And he had one old mule he called Midnight And I'd trail along after them He used to plow them rows straight and deep And I'd come along right behind Bustin' up clods with my own two feet Old Rivers was a friend of mine When the sun would get high and that mule would work And Old Rivers would finally say, "Whoa!" He'd wipe his brow and lean back on the rеins And talk about a place he was gonna go [Chorus] He said, "Onе of these, I'm gonna climb that mountain Walk up there among them clouds Where the cotton's high and the corn's a-growin' And there ain't no fields to plow" [Verse 2] Got a letter the other day from the folks back home They're all fine, the crops are dry And at the end, Mom said, "You know, Old Rivers died" Well, I'm sitting here now on this new-plowed earth Tryin' to find me a little shade And with the sun beating down 'cross the field, I see That mule, Old Rivers and me [Chorus] He said, "One of these, I'm gonna climb that mountain Walk up there among them clouds Where the cotton's high and the corn's a-growin' And there ain't no fields to plow" [Outro] With the sun beating down 'cross the field, I see That mule, Old Rivers and me