Dark highways and the country roads Don't scare you like they did The woods and winds now welcome you To the places you once hid You grew up and you moved away Across a foreign sea And what was left was what was kept Was what you gave to me You thought you'd left it all behind You thought you'd up and gone But all you did was figure out How to take the long way home The Southern rain was heavy Almost heavy as your heart A cavalcade of strangers came To tear your world apart The bells of old St. Mary's Are now the clang of Charcoal Hill And you took the old religion from The woman on the hill You thought you'd left it all behind You thought you'd up and gone But all you did was figure out How to take the long way home You thought you'd left it all behind You thought you'd up and gone But all you did was figure out How to take the long way home The long way home