This is a song based on a tour of Kentucky and Tennessee that I did with a mandolin orchestra. It  often happens that the things you've always known turn out to be completely untrue. I was expecting rednecks and found ladies and gentlemen. I will be going back for sure!

Now I’m a man of the north country

From the gritstone hills to the grey North Sea,

So I never thought there would ever be

Room in my heart for Dixie

I’d seen it all on the TV shows

Where the black men toil and the cotton grows

It’s a cruel land ‘cos we all know

That crosses burn in Dixie.

 

But every road sign just reminds me of a dozen songs I know,

Nashville down to Memphis, and across the Ohio

And so I’ve got to say those words

Seem so strange in my mouth

Here I am a northern man

And , Lord I love the south

 

In the sporting bar where the beer flowed free

They played all their English songs for me

That’s Southern hospitality

From the good old boys of Dixie

I’ve heard their country music play

But my country lies so far away

That I never thought there’d come a day

I’d sing the songs of Dixie.

 

I’ve seen red birds flying in the city street

Seen the buzzards soar on the highway heat

And the sour mash whisky tastes so sweet

Warm as the heart of Dixie

And now my life’s on its northern track

And the east wind howls and the sky is black

But I know one day I’ll be going back

‘Cos I’ve got friends in Dixie.