I sat alone inside a Mars Hill diner
It was my first time to North Carolina
Chicken-fried steak, corn bread and okra
Lord I started getting choked up
And 40-year-old Jane at university
Told me she read the Bible literally
She played a banjo tune and smoked a joint with me
I was only 23, I was only 23
Driving all around the Blue Ridge Mountains
It seemed like a good place to get found in
The way the hills are covered up in green trees
Like there's no place life could not reach
And Alex took me out on the hillside
To play us some songs in Virginia moonlight
He ran over his fiddle with his truck that night
He said "I'm getting drunk tonight, boys I'm getting drunk tonight"
It was just eight months ago that I'd got married
It was four months since mom was buried
My son was just two weeks when she was done in
She said "one goes out and another comes in"
And Alex let me stay over at his place
Down by the New River for a couple of days
He said it was the oldest river in the States
I watched it wind its way into Grace
Ridin' on the New River train
Ridin' on the New River train
Same old train that brought me here, gonna bring me back again