Well if this old fiddle could talk

If this old fiddle could sing

Man if this old fiddle could only talk

It could tell you some wondrous things

Talk to me fiddle

Tell me about when you came across the sea

In the hands of a jewish immigrant who was longing to be free

And you were part of his life for forty years

Through times both lean and fat

And he raised his family and lived out his days

In a New York tenement flat

Talk to me fiddle

Talk to me fiddle

Tell me about how that cajun fiddlin' man

Found you in a pawn shop and took you back down

To the Louisiana bayou land

You knew his wife and you knew his kids

And you watched his family grow

And you played your heart out caju'n style

At the Louisiana Fais Do Do

Then a big shot yankee gambler found you down in New Orleans

And took you up the river on the Mississippi Queen

Then there came the day that you were all

That he had left to lose

And a black man won you in a poker game

And taught you how to play the blues

Cry for me fiddle

The a young man from the mountains of Kentucky came along

And he bought you for a dollar

And took you all the way back home

He gave you to his grandpa on his golden wedding day

And the people would come from miles around just to hear the old man play

Dance for me fiddle

Then a hobo from Biloxi found you living in the rain

And he got himself a free ride on a west bound cattle train

And you got off in Texas

Where they play that western swing

Where the people do the two step

And old Bob Wills was the king

Swing for me fiddle

If this old fiddle could talk

If this old fiddle could sing

Man if this old fiddle could only talk

It could tell you some wondrous things

You've been bouncing around America from sea to shining sea

Now your traveling days are over fiddle 'cause you belong to me