[Verse 1]
Pulled off at the faded exit
Same cracked sign
New coat of paint
Gas station turned to a bright glass market
But that old dog’s asleep in the shade
Mailbox leans like it always did
My name still ghosted in the rust
Front porch swing has a stranger’s cushions
But it creaks the way it used to creak for us
[Chorus]
Backroads still remember
Every tire track
Every dare
Fields got smaller
Kids got taller
But the wind still parts my hair
I don’t know this town like I did back then
But the dust knows the tread of my shoes
Everything’s different
Everything’s tender
Backroads still remember you
[Verse 2]
High school’s now a parking structure
The goalpost stubs hide in the grass
Coffee shop where the jukebox used to
Play the songs that swore we’d never pass
Saw your house with the blue door painted
Gray as my first winter gone
Your mama’s rosebush climbing higher
Clinging to a wall that’s holding on
[Chorus]
Backroads still remember
Every tire track
Every dare
Fields got smaller
Kids got taller
But the wind still parts my hair
I don’t know this town like I did back then
But the dust knows the tread of my shoes
Everything’s different
Everything’s tender
Backroads still remember you
[Bridge]
I walk past the river in a clearer jacket
Phone in my hand like a second spine
But the water moves at the same slow angle
Skipping stones like it’s 1999 (oh)
Time rearranged all the storefront letters
Faces have shifted
Some slipped from view
But the sky hangs low in that familiar color
Like it waited here
Just to match my mood
[Chorus]
Backroads still remember
Every tire track
Every dare
Fields got smaller
Kids got taller
But the wind still parts my hair
I don’t know this town like I did back then
But the dust knows the tread of my shoes
Everything’s different
Somehow forever
Backroads still remember you