I woke up this morning to the humming of the engines|Hauling nature's finest from the Gulf of Mexico|Riding this ol river is peaceful but it's lonesome|And It makes wonder how the old folks are at home||CHORUS|Now the years have blown by me like the wind through the pines|But the song of the south is ever sweet as homemade wine|Oh how I miss those mountains when the laurels are in bloom|And the southern stars are dancing around a North Carolina moon||Just rolled through Memphis I could hear them guitar's a playing|They had the blues so bad it almost broke my heart|But it don't sound nothin like a band of tree frogs singing|When every now and then they'd get in tune with grandpa's harp|Now when I die boys make me this promise|You'll send my body back up North Carolina way|I don't want no tombstone just lay me next to mamma|And let the honeysuckle grow wild upon my grave