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Ballad Of Maudie Dawson
Don & Tina Rigsby/Bill Branch Music, BMI
When I was just a lad at home so many years ago
My momma always told me, "Son, be careful where you go"
There lives an evil woman, Lord, she's trouble don't you know
Her name is Maudie Dawson and she's out to take your soul
They say she killed her husband and his body was never found
Way back on the mountainside she laid him in the ground
No one could ever prove that this had ever taken place
All we knew for sure is that he'd vanished without a trace
I was an only child so there I always played alone
Darkness crept upon me and I'd strayed so far from home
Alone and scared and feeling all the while I might be killed
I'd never seen a night so dark or felt that deathly chill
There was nothing there to light my steps upon that old pathway
Out on the rocky rim of that old hill where I did play
I slipped and fell but something caught my hand before I dropped
It was old Maudie Dawson and she pulled me to the top
She pulled me through the darkness for I didn't know my way
She left me safely at my home before the light of day
My daddy said, "What happened son?" but I couldn't speak a word
"We're going to get old Maudie" was the last words that I heard
They found her singing "Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down"
They hung her from a tree and then they put her in the ground
When I woke up I told my dad, "Old Maudie saved your son"
He cried "Oh, Lord forgive me for this awful deed I've done"
Not even one week later Charlie Dawson came back home
Old Maudie never killed him, he just got the urge to roam
And just because old Maudie never had too much to say
The people turned against her and they put her in the grave
