Baez Joan Outside The Nashville City Limits Lyrics

Outside The Nashville City Limits Lyrics

Outside the Nasville city limits

 A friend and I did drive

 On a day in early winter

 I was glad to be alive.

 

 We went to see some friends of his

 Who lived upon a farm

 Strange and gentle country folk

 Who wished nobody harm

 Fresh-cut sixty acres

 Eight cows in the barn.

 

 But the thing that I remember

 On that cold day in December

 Was that my eyes they did brim over

 As we talked.

 

 In the slowest drawl Ive ever heard

 The man said come with me

 If yall wanne see the prettiest place

 In all of Tennessee.

 

 He poured us each a glass of wine

 And a-walking we did go

 Along fallen leaves and crackling ice

 Where a tiny brook did flow

 He know every inch of the land

 And Lord he loved it so.

 

 But the thing that I remember

 On that cold day in December

 Was that my eyes were brimming over

 As we walked.

 

 He set me down upon a stone 

 Beside a running spring

 He talked in a voice so soft and clear

 Like the waters I heard sing.

 

 He said we searched quite a time 

 For a place to call our own

 There was just me and Mary John.

 And now I guess were home

 I looked at the ground and wondered

 How many years they each had roamed.

 

 And Lord I do remember

 On that day late December

 How my eyes kept brimming over

 As we talked

 As we walked.

 

 And standing there with outstreched arms

 He said to me you know

 I cant wait till the heavy storms

 Cover the ground with snow.

 

 And there on the pond the water-cress

 Is all that dont turn white

 When the sun is high you squint your eyes

 And look at the hills so bright

 And nodding his head my friend said

 "It seems like overnight

 That the leaves come out so tender

 At the turning of the winter."

 I thought the skies they would brim over

 As we talked.

 

 Joan Baez 

 Copyright 1971 by Chandos Music

 ASCAP 3:20