My old man had a rounder's soul

He'd hear an old freight train

Then he'd have to go Said he'd been blessed with a gypsy bone

That's the reason they guessed

He'd been cursed to roam Came into town back before the war

Didn't even know what it was

He was looking for Carried a tattered bag for his violin

It was full of lots of songs

Of places that he'd been He talked real easy, had a smiling way

To pass along to you

When his fiddle played Making people drop their cares and woes

To hum out loud those tunes

That his fiddle bowed Till the people there began to join that sound

And everyone in town was laughing

Singing, dancing round Like the fiddler's tune

Was all they heard that night

As if some dream said

"All the world is right" His fiddler's eye caught one beauty there

She had that rollin', flowin'

Golden kind of hair He played for her as if she danced alone

Played his favorite songs

Ones he called his own He played until she was the last to go

Stopped and packed his case

And said he'd take her home All the nights that passed a child was born

All the years that passed

That love would keep them warm All their lives they'd share a dream come true

All because she danced

While his fiddle tuned My old man had a rounder's soul

He'd hear an old freight train

Then he'd have to go All that I recall said when I was so young

There's no one else could really

Sing those songs he sung