My father had skin like leather

Hands like steel

From a lifetime spent in the cotton fields

Though he'd come home tired and dirty

Almost every night

He found the strength to smile at me and hold my mama tight

While that old transistor radio would play the opry out in the hall

I'd sit and watch their shadows glide across the wall

And they'd dance to a Dixie lullaby

A picture of love beneath the southern sky

Oh my, what a beautiful life

Just like a Dixie lullaby

I left home at 18

In a hand-me down Chevrolet

Packed my mama's goodness and my old man's stubborn ways

It was college, work, and love

Then the babies came

The youngest one's got his grandaddy's name

And in the early morning hours, when my children could not sleep

I'd rock them in my arms to a gentle beat

And I'd sing them a Dixie lullaby

Hush, baby, don't you start to cry

Oh my, what a beautiful life

Just like a Dixie lullaby

My father was a mountain of a man

That was the description that I gave

The morning that we laid him in his grave

There with my mama by his side, we said our last goodbye

To a man we thought would never die

As i stood there in the fields of amazing grace

Oh how the tears ran down my face

And I sang him a Dixie lullaby

We'll meet again, by and by

Oh my, what a beautiful life

Just like a Dixie lullaby

Oh my, what a beautiful life

Just like a Dixie lullaby