Lyrics
Verse 1
I was down in Nashville at a truck stop
Quarter past the midnight on the clock
Rain was coming down on the window glass
When this fella stumbled in all soaked and sassed
His shirt was torn and his hands were shaking
Said he lost his job and his heart was breaking
Sat down next to me with a hollow stare
Said he ain't got a friend anywhere
Pre-Chorus
Now I could've looked away and paid my bill
Could've let that stranger take his spill
But something in my chest said stay a while
Son, you get to choose the way you're sorted
Chorus
Hold on, hold on, the sun's gonna find you
Hold on, hold on, I'm right here behind you
You don't have to carry that load alone
Hold on, hold on, till the morning's known
Verse 2
I bought him coffee and a plate of eggs
He looked at me with tired legs
Said he's been sleeping in his old Ford truck
Three days running out of luck
I told him 'bout the winter I turned twenty
Sleeping in a church pew on a Sunday
How a stranger bought me soup and bread
And that's how I got my head
Pre-Chorus
So I handed him a twenty and my number
Told him doors don't stay shut forever
Sometimes all it takes is one warm light
To turn a fella's whole damn night
Chorus
Hold on, hold on, the sun's gonna find you
Hold on, hold on, I'm right here behind you
You don't have to carry that load alone
Hold on, hold on, till the morning's known
Bridge
Now I ain't no saint with a halo crown
I've stumbled plenty on my way down
But every hand that's reached for me
Was somebody's burned out memory
So pass it on when you get back your feet
That's the only gospel I repeat
Verse 3
Six months later I got a letter
Postmarked from a town I don't remember better
It said "Friend, I got a job and a roof up high
And I'm paying that coffee forward tonight"
I read it twice and I set it down
Smiled at the ceiling of my town
'Cause that's the way the good news travels
One held hand unravels
Pre-Chorus
Now you might think it's just a story
Of a stranger's passing glory
But I tell you true it works that way
You reach one hand and save two that day
Chorus
Hold on, hold on, the sun's gonna find you
Hold on, hold on, I'm right here behind you
You don't have to carry that load alone
Hold on, hold on, till the morning's known
Outro
Hold on, hold on
Mm, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Verse 4
Well the letter sat upon my dash for weeks
Through the Delta and the Smoky Mountain peaks
I was hauling freight to Memphis when it hit
That I owed a kindness back for every bit
So I pulled into a station on the line
Saw a young gal crying at a payphone sign
Her suitcase busted at the seams and all
I said "Miss, let me help you make that call"
Pre-Chorus
Now I don't claim to know her situation
Just a splinter off the same damn foundation
And anywhere I've been there's a man or two
Who needed what another brother knew
Chorus
Hold on, hold on, the sun's gonna find you
Hold on, hold on, I'm right here behind you
You don't have to carry that load alone
Hold on, hold on, till the morning's known
Verse 5
She told me 'bout a mountain town she'd left
A landlord who had pocketed her rent
Her mama's ring was all she had to sell
And the highway sang a lonely kind of bell
I gave her what I had and half of more
Told her I'd been sleeping on that same cold floor
She looked at me like I was made of gold
But I'm just a man who remembers being cold
Pre-Chorus
And somewhere in a diner down the line
Somebody's gonna catch a hand like mine
And that's the current running through it all
One ripple and you answer to the call
Chorus
Hold on, hold on, the sun's gonna find you
Hold on, hold on, I'm right here behind you
You don't have to carry that load alone
Hold on, hold on, till the morning's known
Bridge
Now the road gets long and the tires wear thin
And the radio plays a hard luck hymn
But every mile you turn around and pay
Some stranger's debt from a rainy day
I ain't got much beyond this old guitar
And a tank of gas and a calling card
But I've got a line of people I can't see
All holding out their hands to me
Verse 6
Last winter found me stranded in the pass
In a whiteout with a busted glass
And I thought about that letter on the dash
And the gal I helped through that small town flash
Then a trucker pulled up in a Peterbilt
Said "Brother, ain't nobody getting helped out here, sit"
He drove me sixty miles to a heated hall
And wouldn't take a penny, wouldn't take at all
Pre-Chorus
And that's the day I understood the thread
The ones you save become the ones who've bled
It ain't a circle that you gotta draw
It's a river that was running long before
Final Chorus
Hold on, hold on, the sun's gonna find you
Hold on, hold on, I'm right here behind you
You don't have to carry that load alone
Hold on, hold on, till the morning's known
Post-Chorus
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)
Hold on
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)
Hold on now
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)
Till the morning's known
Outro
So if you're standing at the edge tonight
With your head hung low and your pocket light
Remember the hand that came before
Is reaching for you at that door
Hold on (hold on, hold on)
Hold on (hold on, hold on)
Hold on (hold on, hold on)
Till the morning's known
(Mm, mm, mm)
Hold on
(Mm, mm, mm)
Hold
Verse 7
Now I'm parked out by the river bend
With that Peterbilt behind me round the bend
He told me his own story over diesel fumes
About a sister he lost to an early tomb
Said she'd been the one who taught him how to drive
How to shift a gear and keep a heart alive
And every time he hauls a load to town
He's paying back the road that brought him 'round
Pre-Chorus
Now I don't claim to hold no grand design
Just a thread of mercy woven line by line
And every hand I've shook along the way
Was somebody's answer to a prayer they'd prayed
Chorus
Hold on, hold on, the sun's gonna find you
Hold on, hold on, I'm right here behind you
You don't have to carry that load alone
Hold on, hold on, till the morning's known
Verse 8
Spring came early to the mountain pass
I was rolling through the redbud and the grass
When I saw a hitchhiker with a cardboard sign
Said "Anywhere but here, I'm out of time"
He was seventeen with an army coat
A busted guitar and a shaky note
Said his daddy threw him out for who he loved
And he'd been running from the thunder above
Pre-Chorus
Now I've seen enough of this old land
To know a broken kid can make a stand
So I pulled over and I popped the door
Told him "Son, you ain't alone no more"
Chorus
Hold on, hold on, the sun's gonna find you
Hold on, hold on, I'm right here behind you
You don't have to carry that load alone
Hold on, hold on, till the morning's known
Bridge
And we drove three states through the night
Him talking soft and me feeling right
I told him 'bout the diner and the rain
About a letter that rewrote my brain
He laughed a little, said "I'll pay it back"
I said "That's the only track that's on the map"
And somewhere down that lonesome road
I swear I heard the whole world unload
Verse 9
I dropped him off in Austin by a friend
We parted ways and the sun came in again
Six months on I got a postcard note
From a city where the canyon waters float
It said "I'm singing in a coffee house now
And there's a kid outside with a tired brow
I bought him soup and a place to stay
The way you did for me that day"
Pre-Chorus
So it travels on through salt and sand
One kindness moving hand to hand
And I'm just a station on that line
Still holding out the light that was once mine
Final Chorus
Hold on, hold on, the sun's gonna find you
Hold on, hold on, I'm right here behind you
You don't have to carry that load alone
Hold on, hold on, till the morning's known
Post-Chorus
(Pass it on, pass it on)
Hold on
(Pass it on, pass it on)
Hold on now
(Pass it on, pass it on)
Till the morning's known
Outro
So if you're out there on that gravel road
With a broken heart or a heavy load
Just know the hands that came before
Are reaching out and wanting more
Hold on (hold on, hold on)
Hold on (hold on, hold on)
Hold on (hold on, hold on)
Till the morning's known
(Paid it forward, paid it forward)
Yeah
(Paid it forward, paid it forward)
Hold on
(One hand, one hand)
Till the morning's known
(Mm, mm, mm)
Till the morning's known
(Mm, mm, mm)
Till the morning's known
(Mm, hold on)
Till the morning's known
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