Lyrics

MY BEST DRESS
(Randall Clay/Ashley McBryde/Cheley Tackett)
 
My true love came home alive
From the bloodshed at Shiloh
To find my hand given to another man
On the other side of the Ohio
 
Pa sold off every mule he had
And mama’s only piece of silver
As the railroad reached from Lexington
He had ‘em harvest all our timber
 
I gave all that we had left
So he’d pay off my Daddy’s debt
I wore white with innocence
And he got blood on my best dress
 
There was nothing gentle about this man
And his baby grew inside me
Before I died by his hand
I prayed my true love would find me
 
Whiskey & wickedness
He cursed the Bible & my Sunday best
I mourned a child that I never met
And he got blood on my best dress
 
The only chore that I had left
Was to pull the wash down off the line
Dogs were barking so he stood up
Slipped on his boots and stepped outside
 
I heard a gunshot from the west
Bullet sank deep in his chest
He grabbed the line with his last breath
And he got blood on my best dress
 
My true love came home alive
From the bloodshed at Shiloh
To find my hand given to another man
On the other side of the Ohio