Darius Rucker Lyrics Play "Wagon Wheel"

Darius Rucker Lyrics

Play "Wagon Wheel" on Apple Music

"Wagon Wheel"
(originally by Old Crow Medicine Show)

Heading down south to the land of the pines
I'm thumbing my way into North Carolina
Staring up the road and pray to God I see headlights
I made it down the coast in seventeen hours
Picking me a bouquet of dogwood flowers
And I'm a-hopin' for Raleigh, I can see my baby tonight

So rock me momma like a wagon wheel
Rock me momma any way you feel
Hey momma rock me
Rock me momma like the wind and the rain
Rock me momma like a south bound train
Hey momma rock me

Running from the cold up in New England
I was born to be a fiddler in an old time string band
My baby plays a guitar, I pick a banjo now
Oh, north country winters keep a-getting me down
Lost my money playing poker so I had to leave town
But I ain't turning back to living that old life no more

So rock me momma like a wagon wheel
Rock me momma any way you feel
Hey momma rock me
Rock me momma like the wind and the rain
Rock me momma like a south bound train
Hey momma rock me

Walkin' to the south out of Roanoke
I caught a trucker out of Philly had a nice long toke
But he's a-heading west from the Cumberland gap
To Johnson City, Tennessee
I gotta get a move on before the sun
I hear my baby calling my name and I know that she's the only one
And if I die in Raleigh at least I will die free

So rock me momma like a wagon wheel
Rock me momma any way you feel
Hey momma rock me
Oh, rock me momma like the wind and the rain
Rock me momma like a south bound train
Hey, hey momma rock me

Oh, so rock me momma like a wagon wheel
Rock me momma any way you feel (I wanna feel)
Hey, hey momma rock me (momma rock me, momma rock me)
Rock me momma like the wind and the rain
Rock me momma like a south bound train
(I wanna rock like a south bound train)
Hey momma rock me
Rock me

Play "Wagon Wheel" on Apple Music

Writer(s): Bob Dylan, Jay Secor

"Wagon Wheel" was co-written by Bob Dylan and Ketch Secor. Dylan wrote the chorus during the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid sessions in February of 1973. That demo was recorded as the bootleg "Rock Me Mama". Secor added verses in 1998 after having heard that recording.

These lyrics say that a trucker goes "west from the Cumberland gap to Johnson City, Tennessee", which is in the east actually. Ketch Secor explained, "I got some geography wrong, but I still sing it that way. I just wanted the word 'west' in there. 'West' has got more power than 'east'."

Old Crow Medicine Show's version of this song was certified "Platinum" by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in April 2013. Darius Rucker's version topped the Hot Country Songs chart and was certified triple "Platinum" by the RIAA in March 2014.