An Old Crow Told Me

[Piano Intro] old widow lived on top of a hill

Every night she wandered down

Past the leaning stones and the crooked gate

Where the buried people sleep

She said she hunted thieves who dig by dark

But that was never true

She was chasing souls that slipped their graves

With an old oil lamp in hand

Pre-Chorus

One night she heard laughter rise

Somewhere among the stones

She turned back up the path

And she grabbed her father's rifle

Chorus

A dark cloud swallowed the moon

The wind began to howl

The laughter grew louder

She ran toward the sound and fired

A sharp claw recoiled or so she believed

A thud came down on her head

She lay there helpless and dead

Helpless and dead

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh-oh

Mm-hmm

Verse 2

Years later the children still dare one another

To stand beneath the old oak tree

The one by the grave with a hole

The cries of yesterday

And the widow's restless ghost

Keep the legend breathing still

Pre-Chorus

A lesson wrapped in sadness

A warning to the young

A story mothers tell their kids

When the evening has begun

Chorus

A dark cloud swallowed the moon

The wind began to howl

The laughter grew louder

She ran toward the sound and fired

A sharp claw recoiled or so she believed

A thud came down on her head

She lay there helpless and dead

Helpless and dead

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh-oh [Bridge]

The claw was a grave

The wind became a call

Her own shot came back

And brought her final fall

No one saw her after

No one spoke her name An old crow revealed this all to me Beneath a full moon's gaze [Chorus]

A dark cloud swallowed the moon

The wind began to howl

The laughter grew louder

She ran toward the sound and fired

A sharp claw recoiled or so she believed

A thud came down on her head

She lay there helpless and dead

Helpless and dead

Verse 3

I came to that hill with a notebook and a lie

Told the town I was writing their dead

But I dug where the crow had been pecking the ground

And I found what the widow had fled

A jawbone wrapped in a ribbon of red

A locket with no photograph

And a hole in the earth that went deeper than night

Where a voice climbed out and laughed

Pre-Chorus

The lantern she carried still burns in my dreams

The rifle still leans on the wall

And every time I try to leave this town

The hill won't let me go at all

Chorus

A dark cloud swallowed the moon

The wind began to howl

The laughter grew louder

I ran toward the sound and fired

A sharp claw recoiled or so I believed

A thud came down on my head

I lay there helpless and dead

Helpless and dead

Post-Chorus

Oh-oh-oh

Mm-hmm

Verse 4

Now the children dare each other to knock on my door

To see if the stranger still breathes

They say I walk the ridge with a lamp in my fist

And a story no one believes

The widow and I share the same crooked path

The same moon, the same final shot

Two ghosts on a hill that remembers too much

Two names that the living forgot

Bridge

And the crow on the fence post

Tilts its head at me

Says the hill keeps everyone

Who comes to set it free

Guitar Solo

Pre-Chorus

So if you hear laughter among the stones

Do not turn and do not stay

Drop your shovel, drop your lamp

And walk the other way

Chorus

A dark cloud swallowed the moon

The wind began to howl

The laughter grew louder

You ran toward the sound and fired

A sharp claw recoiled or so you believed

A thud came down on your head

You lay there helpless and dead

Helpless and dead

Outro

Oh-oh-oh

Mm-hmm

Oh-oh-oh

Helpless and dead