Daddy played the banjo 'neath the yellow tree

It rang across the backyard an old time melody

I loved to hear the music I was only five

I listened as his fingers made the banjo come alive

Sometimes I wake up at night and hear a distant tune

The banjo would echo 'round my childhood moon

I'd sneak down the backstairs daddy never knew

And grab a broom and make believe I was pickin' tunes

One day daddy put my fingers down upon the strings

He picked it with his other hand we made the banjo ring

Now the music takes me back across the yellow days

To the summers with my dad and the tunes he played

Well I'm just tellin' lies about the things I did

See I'm that banjo player who never had a cue

Now I sit beneath that yellow tree

Hopin' that a kid somewhere is listening to me

Daddy played the banjo 'neath the yellow tree

It rang across the backyard and wove a spell on me

Now the banjo takes me back through the foggy haze

Where memories of what never was become the good old days

Daddy played the banjo