Red Dirt Girl

Me and my best friend Lillian And her blue tick hound dog Gideon Sittin' on the front porch coolin' in the shade Singin' every song the radio played Waitin' for the Alabama sun to go down Two red dirt girls in a red dirt town Me and Lillian Just across the line And a little southeast of Meridian She loved her brother I remember back when He was fixin' up a '49 Indian He told her, "Little sister, gonna ride the wind Up around the moon and back again" He never got farther than Vietnam I was standin' there with her When the telegram come for Lillian Now he's lyin' somewhere About a million miles from Meridian She said, "There's not much hope for a red dirt girl Somewhere out there is a great big world That's where I'm bound" "And the stars might fall on Alabama But one of these days I'm gonna swing My hammer down" Away from this red dirt town I'm gonna make a joyful sound She grew up tall and she grew up thin Buried that old dog Gideon By a crêpe myrtle bush in the back of the yard Her dad turned mean and her mama leaned hard Got in trouble with a boy from town Figured that she might as well settle down So she dug right in Across a red dirt line Just a little southeast of Meridian Yes, she tried hard to love him But it never did take It was just another way for the heart to break So she learned to bend One thing they don't tell you about the blues When you got 'em You keep on fallin' 'cause there ain't no bottom There ain't no end, at least not for Lillian Nobody knows when she started her skid She was only 27 and she had five kids Coulda been the whiskey, coulda been the pills Coulda been the dream she was tryin' to kill But there won't be a mention in the News of the World About the life and the death of a red dirt girl Named Lillian Who never got any farther Across the line than Meridian Now the stars still fall on Alabama Tonight she finally laid That hammer down without a sound In the red dirt ground