Jason Isbell Live Oak
There's a man who walks beside me He is who I used to be And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me And I wonder who she's pinin' for on nights I'm not around Could it be the man who did the things I'm living down ?
I was rougher than a timber shippin' out of Fond du Lac, When I headed south at 17 the sheriff on my back
I'd never held a lover in my arms or in my gaze So I found another victim every couple days
But the night I fell in love with her I made my weakness known Through the fires and the farmers diggin' dusty fields alone
The jealous innuendos of the lonely hearted men Let me know what kind of country I was sleeping in
Well you couldn't stay a loner on the plains before the war My neighbors took to slightin' me I had to ask what for.
Rumors of my wickedness had reached our little town Soon she'd heard about the boys I used to hang around.
We'd robbed a Great Lakes freighter,killed a couple men aboard. And I told her, her eyes flickered like the sharp steel of a sword.
All the things that she'd suspected I'd expected her to fear Was the truth that drew her to me when I landed here
There's a man who walks beside me he is who I used to be And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me And I wonder who she's pinin' for on nights I'm not around Could it be the man who did the things I'm living down ?
Well I carved a cross from live oak and a box from shortleaf pine Buried her so deep she touched the water table line.
I picked up what I needed and I headed south again To myself I wondered would I ever find another friend.
There's a man who walks beside her, he is who I used to be And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me.
