Jaybird Joe Lyrics

Your voice can split a tree

Like lightning in the rain

Your words grow like creeper

'Til your song and point is made

Your daddy's whip the yearling crows

So mama'd year their cry

And fly into his shotgun

In his fields of corn she'd lie

Joe come on home, the babies are crying

Their mama's gone away and the night is long

Daddy threw your slingshot right into the fire

'Cuz you never kill nothing that sings a song

Tender years on backroads

Slinging marbles in the wind

You'd watch them sail over the trees

Past the holy water's bend

'Til you cracked a jaybird's skull

Felt its wings beat in your throat

And you ran, ran, ran away

'Til it swallowed you up whole

Joe come on home, the babies are crying

Their mama's gone away and the night is long

Daddy threw your slingshot right into the fire

'Cuz you never kill nothing that sings a song

Ain't all birds songbirds?

You can't really say

With the line between wrong and righteous

Thinner every day

You've laid them all to rest now

Hung your hat and paid your bills

But your voice still echoes with the sound

Of the one you killed

Joe come on home, the babies are crying

Their mama's gone away and the night is long

Your daddy's gone the way of the fallen crows

Now you're the only one who sings the song