Well, he came from Northern Ireland Searching for the free man's ground And he came to bet his fortune On a West Virginia plow He built a house of timber And raised a redhead son Then they worked the land together And prayed the rain would come There's a scarecrow in the garden That looks like Lucifer And I've been reading Revelations With my bare feet in the river Well, the redhead son got older And took a brown-eyed wife And the fields were green as dollars 'Cause the dirt was black as night I came in late September The youngest one of three And my sisters off and married So the land was left to me There's a scarecrow in the garden That looks like Lucifer And I've been reading Revelations With my bare feet in the river I know every single fence-post Every rock that goes around I've been staring at the red oak Where I know they'll lay me down The fields ain't what they once were The rains just seem to flood And I've been thinking about that river Wondering how it turns to blood I've been sitting here all morning I was sitting here all night There's a bible in my left hand And a pistol in my right