William Elliott Whitmore Gravel Road Lyrics

It must be that time of year
I'm feeling that pull again
I've got to get away from here
and back to where my feet can stand
Back to where the trees grow tall
and ain't a sound for miles around
Except for the distant call
of that lonely coyote's howl

Life's mysteries unravel when my tires hit that gravel
and I leave the paved road far behind
Every breath I breathe is one step closer to me
easing my worried mind

Way back in the sticks
is where I feel alive in my rusty old '66
that won't even go fifty five

Nothing can compare
to the joy that I've found
every time I go back there
to my own spiritual ground

I'll make a quart of sweet corn whiskey
from ten gallons of sour mash
I'll turn a pile of firewood
into a pile of sky grey ash

If there's anything left inside me
that remembers what it's like to feel
that cold rain falling on the top of my head
and the mud beneath my heels