I couldn't have been much more than ten, when I met her through a friend
Her skin was dark and wrinkled her eyes were black and kind
She sang some of her songs for me, like "Freight Train" and "Shake Sugaree"
She asked if I would play her some of mine
I hadn't played for very long, in fact, I'd written just one song
I played that song I'd written, and some others that I knew
She was gonna do a show, in a couple weeks or so
She asked if I would like to play there too
And we sang, "Freight Train" on the Monument Lawn
With a statue of Abe, looking over us
Over seventy years apart, but we were singing from the heart
Like two kindred spirits in the night, we were two kindred spirits in the night
When I got up on that stage, I forgot about my age
The fireflies were blinking, it was a hot and humid night
But I somehow knew right there and then, I couldn't let that feeling end
Like 'Libba, I'd play music all my life
And we sang, "Freight Train" on the Monument Lawn
With a statue of Abe, looking over us
Over seventy years apart, but we were singing from the heart
Like two kindred spirits in the night, we were two kindred spirits in the night
Twenty years have come and gone, 'Libba Cotton has moved on
To that better home they tell us, is waiting in the sky
She wrote "Freight Train" as a child, and sometimes now it makes me smile
When I think how music doesn't die
And we sang, "Freight Train" on the Monument Lawn
With a statue of Abe, looking over us
Over seventy years apart, but we were singing from the heart
Like two kindred spirits in the night, we were two kindred spirits in the night
