Gravel In throat

There’s a train that never stops here anymore

Just the echo of iron and a broken chord.

I learned to pray with gravel in my throat

And call it faith

I was born where the river runs bitter and slow,

Where the cornfields whisper what the city won’t show

Daddy had a Bible and a bottle of rye,

Said “Son, men don’t cry — they just learn how to lie.”

Mama sang hymns through a cigarette haze,

Counting unpaid bills and invisible days

I grew tall in the shadow of a rusted out Ford,

With a mouth full of silence and a chest full of war

And I’ve been holding thunder in my lungs,

Breathing smoke where the choir once sung

I got gravel in my throat,

And mercy in my veins,

I been dragging this ghost

Through miles of Georgia rain

If love was a church,

It burned down long ago

Now I sing hallelujah

With gravel in my throat

Ohhhhhhh

Yehh

There’s a storm been sleeping in my chest,

Every time I love, it fails the test

They told me, “Keep your head down, boy,”

So I buried my dreams in the backyard soil

Every “yes sir” tasted like dust and rust,

Every backroad promise turned to mistrust

Steel-toe boots and a factory line,

Trading my heartbeat for overtime

Saw my reflection in a window at night

Didn’t recognize the man in the light

Ohhhhhhh

Yehh

There’s a storm been sleeping in my chest,

Every time I love, it fails the test

I got gravel in my throat,

And fire in my hands,

I been building my hope

Out of broken lands

If heaven keeps score,

I’m already below

Still I sing hallelujah

With gravel in my throat

Ohhhhhhh

Yehh

I loved a girl with summer in her hair,

She danced like she didn’t have a single care

But I was winter wrapped in human skin,

Too cold to let her sunlight in

She said, “You’re kind, but you’re miles away.”

I was fighting wars I’d never say

So she left like smoke on a Sunday breeze

And silence moved in with me

There’s a storm been sleeping in my chest,

Every time I love, it fails the test

I got gravel in my throat,

And fire in my hands,

I been building my hope

Out of broken lands

If heaven keeps score,

I’m already below

Still I sing hallelujah

With gravel in my throat

Ohhhhhhh

Yehh

Tell me, how do you heal what you hide?

How do you swim with this weight tied?

Every scar got a story to tell

Some of ’em whisper… some of ’em yell

I ain’t asking for angels to fall from above,

Just one honest hand and a little bit of love

If redemption’s real, let it find me slow

’Cause I’m tired of singing alone

I got gravel in my throat

But I’m learning how to pray

I got gravel in my throat,

But I’m stronger every day

If love is a road,

I’ll walk it though it’s cold

And I’ll sing hallelujah

Till my story’s told

A man ain’t the silence he keeps

A man ain’t the sorrow he drinks

Ohhhhhhh

Yehh