[Verse 1]
Left my wife in Missouri
Her Bible on the chair
Said I’d bring home heaven
Or I’d vanish out here
Cold creek cuts my fingers
Mud caked in my teeth
Every pan a little prayer
Every failure, grief
[Chorus]
This graveyard gold
Keeps calling my name
Shovel in my shadow
Whispering my shame
If the river takes my body
Let the mountain keep my soul
I’ll die here digging
For that graveyard gold
[Verse 2]
Saw a man strike Sunday
Dead by Friday night
Cards, cheap gin, loud laughing
One quick, crooked knife
We nailed him in a pine box
By a twisted cedar root
His claim already spoken for
Before we filled the wound
[Chorus]
This graveyard gold
Keeps calling my name
Shovel in my shadow
Whispering my shame
If the river takes my body
Let the mountain keep my soul
I’ll die here digging
For that graveyard gold
[Bridge]
Preacher man came riding
Cross of iron on his chest
Said, “Son, what are you chasing?”
I said, “Nothing—just some rest”
But I kept on swinging
In the dark before the dawn
Every echo in that canyon
Sounded like “go on”
[Chorus]
This graveyard gold
Keeps calling my name
Shovel in my shadow
Whispering my shame
If the river takes my body
Let the mountain keep my soul
I’ll die here digging
For that graveyard gold