Rod McNeil - Tim O'Brien

I make a living from a circuit I made

Out of trial and error and gigs that I’ve played

It might be the money or the town that it’s in

But mostly it’s people make you come back again

There was one little place that I played every year

It’s outside of Pittsburgh, I know it’s still there

Just a little old Moose lodge, the crowd was okay

But you’d never get rich from the money they’d pay

It’s mostly been silent since Rod was around

But that place used to fill with a bluegrassy sound

And I’ll never forget the way he made me feel

A big man with a big heart, named Rod McNeil

You might arrive tired and dark in a gloom

Then he’d buy a big dinner and pay for your room

Pete Rowan would hug him and call him his dad

Maybe that day the lonely road wasn’t so bad

I saw this and said that I’d buy it for Tim

Didn’t I Marty, he’d say with a grin

Now I keep that toy fiddle on my window sill

To remind me of Rod and those grey Pittsburgh hills

It’s mostly been silent since Rod was around

But that place used to fill with a bluegrassy sound

And I’ll never forget the way he made me feel

A big man with a big heart, named Rod McNeil