Graveyard Hollow Ballad

Down the hollow where the bone-dry creek runs still

They buried something underneath the hill

Old Ezra spoke in tongues before the frost

His lantern swung for days then it was lost (mmmm)

Something calling from the split-rail fence

A voice too cold to be coincidence (ohhh)

From the other side of the grave they call my name

Through the dust and the rot and the rust and the rain

The town is hollow,

every door is sealed

What's buried in the ground cannot be healed

(ohhh Lord) (mmmm)

The general store still wears its faded sign

But no one's crossed that threshold since '89

A woman waits behind the window glass

She mouths the names of men who couldn't last (mmmm)

The preacher's book was open to a page

That no one wrote in any living age (ohhh)

From the other side of the grave they call my name

Through the dust and the rot and the rust and the rain

The town is hollow,

every door is sealed

What's buried in the ground cannot be healed (ohhh Lord) (mmmm)

I dug my hands into the salted earth

Found a locket with no name and no

birth

She told me

everything a dead voice can

She said: go before the frost,

while you still

can (ohhhh)

(mmmm,

mmmm) (ohhhh)