The Almanac (Bonus Track)

This morning I was sittin' on the pew that I have known

Since I was just a boy fiddlin' with my church clothes

Somewhere between the altar call and a too long benediction

A voice inside the steeple left me with a new found conviction

Momma said I had the same condition

That daddy had tillin' land trying to make a livin'

The older that I get the more I understand

That I am not the architect just the keeper of the land

Sometimes the fields catch fire sometimes the sky don't rain

All I know is livin' takes a little faith

Cotton grows, money comes and goes

These are things the almanac don't know

I've saved every pressing of the annual subscription

Read every chicken scratch note of my daddy sittin' wishin'

Words about a harvest that fails every 15 years

A timeline for the 40 acres he's yet to clear

Every other page there's a bible verse or two

Back then they were for him but now they're for me too

The older that I get the more I understand

That I am not the architect just the keeper of the land

Sometimes the fields catch fire sometimes the sky don't rain

All I know is living takes a little faith

Cotton grows, money comes and goes

These are things the almanac don't know

No one saw it coming

The cancer in his blood

I remember momma cryin'

When the doctor said three months

I wanted to be angry

After they pulled the plug

But I try to remember

When he said listen son

The older that I get the more I understand

That I am not the architect just the keeper of the land

Sometimes the fields catch fire sometimes the sky don't rain

Trust me when I tell you living takes a little faith

Cotton grows, money comes and goes

These are things the almanac don't know