(Rodney Crowell/Claudia Church)

I remember waking up
Running down a dirt road
Morning dew a shinin', watermelon by the wagon load
Little baby brother and my sisters in the shade
Listening to the crickets and the music that they made
Riding on a tractor with my granpa in the summertime
Cold bologna sandwich, green tomatoes on the garden vine
Billy Joe McMillan was the first boy that I ever knew
he moved to California and it broke my heart in

North Carolinayour pine trees so tall
Your hills and your valleys, your cool waterfalls
Your Blue Ridge Mountains
Your fields and your streams
Are lost on the back roads that run through my dreams
Of North CarolinaHome in my heart

Skinny legs and barefoot on the top of an abandoned car
Pouring out my heart just like a country music singing star
Pinecone for a microphone
Full moon for a spotlight
Shining down from heaven, like it's smiling on me

North Carolinayour pine trees so tall
Your hills and your valleys, your cool waterfalls
Your Blue Ridge Mountains
Your fields and your streams
Are lost on the back roads that run through my dreams
Of North CarolinaHome in my heart

Although it seems like yesterday
I'm still a million miles away
Going to the ocean in my uncle's new sedan
Daddy's in the Army, there's a war in Vietnam
Mama kept us going with her sewing and a prayer
It's hard to be a family when your daddy's missing

North Carolinayour pine trees so tall
Your hills and your valleys, your cool waterfalls
Your Blue Ridge Mountains
Your fields and your streams
Are lost on the back roads that run through my dreams
Of North CarolinaHome in my heart

Home in my heart
Home in my heart