Family Hands

Intro: Last Sunday we got in the car and we drove  To the town you were raised in your boyhood home        The trees were just turning up on the ridge  And this was your valley when you were a kid          You showed me the railroad that your daddy worked on  As we neared the old house where your granny lives on          She’s nearing ninety years now with her daughters by her side  Who tend the places in the heart where loneliness can hide Raised by the women who are stronger than you know A patchwork quilt of memory only women could have sewn The threads were stitched by family hands protected from the moth By your mother... and her mother the weavers of your cloth               (2nd verse same chords)  Your grandmother owned a gun in 1932  When times were bad just everywhere you said she used it too  And the life and times of everyone are traced inside their palms  Her skin may be so weathered but her grip is still so strong  And I see your eyes belong to her and too your mama too  A slice of Virginia sky the clearest shade of blue  Repeat Chorus  (3rd verse same chords)  And a rich man you might never be they’d love you just the same  They’ve handed down so much to you besides your Christian name  And the spoken word won’t heal you like the laying on of hands  Belonging to the ones who raised you to a man  Repeat Chorus