Jason Isbell - Live Oak lyrics

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 the 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 fighters 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
And 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