Lyrics

Gold grows the barley
It?s high summer in Farley
White sheep on the eastern hill
Town kids playing at the old mill
The dappled light through the poplar trees
The Georgia pines and the hickories
Gold grows the barley
Charlie, come home

Purple grows the heather
We ought to be together
Your daddy?s farm was a dream come true
A dream I thought I?d get to share with you
Three months ago you left to work in town
To try to pay the mortgage down
Gold grows the barley
Charlie, come home

Gold grows the barley
It?s high summer in Farley
Gold grows the barley
Charlie, please come home

And I?ve been acting very thoughtlessly
Last week your mom came by to comfort me
How she managed back in ?fifty-two
While your daddy was in Wee Jan Boo
How she wrote to him and managed the farm
And how she prayed to God to keep him from harm
I just answered that I didn?t care
?He?s not at war, he just isn?t here?

Gold grows the barley
It?s high summer in Farley
Gold grows the barley
Charlie, please come home

Green flowed the river
She asked me to forgive her
I was so wrong, Charlie, what could I do?
She held me tight and I cried for you

The yellow dog and the rocking chair
The red barn and the piebald mare
The gray mist and the morning chill
Dewdrops waiting on the windowsill
The dappled light through the poplar trees
The Georgia pines and the hickories
The heather is purple and the barley is gold
It doesn?t mean much without you to hold

Blue flashed the neon light
The bus stop on a Tuesday night
Greyhound forty minutes late
You?d think by now I?d have learned to wait
As you climb in I just can?t say what I feel
And I silently grip the steering wheel
Till you say, ?God, look at the barley?
Charlie, welcome home

Gold grows the barley
It?s high summer in Farley
Gold grows the barley
Charlie, please come home