The Reverend Mr. Black

He rode easy in the saddle, he was tall and lean And you'd a-thought nothing but a streak of mean Could make a man look so down right strong But one look in his eyes and you knowed you was wrong He was a mountain of a man, and I want you to know He could preach hot hell or freezin' snow He carried a bible in a canvas sack And everybody called him the Reverend Mr. Black He was poor as a beggar But he rode like a king Sometimes in the evenin' I could hear him sing I gotta walk that lonesome valley I gotta walk it by myself There ain't nobody here can walk it for me I gotta walk it by myself If ever I could have thought this man in black Was soft and had any yellow up his back I gave that notion up the very day A lumberjack came in and it wasn't to pray He kicked open that meeting house door And he cussed everybody up and down the floor Then, when things got quiet all over the place He walked up and cussed in the preacher's face He hit that reverend like a kick of a mule And to my way of thinkin' it took one pure fool To turn the other cheek to that lumberjack But that's what he did, The Reverend Mr. Black He stood like a rock, a man among men And then he let that lumberjack hit him again And then with a voice as kind as could be He cut him down like a big oak tree when he said You gotta walk that lonesome valley You gotta walk it by yourself There ain't nobody here can walk it for you You gotta walk it by yourself Well, it's been many years since we had to part And I guess I learned all his ways by heart Just I can still hear his sermon's ring Down in the valley where he used to sing You gotta walk that lonesome valley You gotta walk it by yourself There ain't nobody here can walk it for you You got to walk it by yourself You gotta walk that lonesome valley You gotta walk it by yourself There ain't nobody here can walk it for me You gotta walk it by yourself.