Jason Isbell - Live Oak

There's a man who walks beside me

It 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 now ?


I was rougher than a timber

shippin' out of Fond du Lac

When I headed south at 17

ol' sheriff on my back

I 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 had been 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 or more

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 find another friend


There's a man who walks beside her,

it is who I used to be

And I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me.