Tom Brown left his family
Took steps from his front door
And people said, "well, maybe he's dead,
Or drinking, like before."
It was a little bit less than a choice
A little bit more than a whim
When Tom Brown left his family

Tom sits in his kitchen
He'll look you in the eye
With a lone tooth on the bottom
He's sixteen long years dry
He strums a big old steel-string,
His soul's in every word
He'll play your favorite country song
And some you never heard

Judgment ran like water
Through a tired old mill town
"To leave a wife with the two young boys,
That's a low-life, going down..."
But every night on Second Street
One candle flame would burn
For a family still in quiet time
To pray for Tom's return

Way out in Kansas City
A hobo worked the street
In a cloud of kids, singin' old time songs
The glory to repeat
He played "The Old Lady That Swallowed a Spider,"
He sang 'em the songs of Hank Snow and Merle Haggard
Just stayin' alive for the year and the quarter
That Tom Brown left his family

Is there a God to hear a prayer
Or need an old-time song?
One light might cross a nation
To find a soul gone wrong?
When the call came from Missouri
Way long past overdue
Tom said, "I miss my family."
Said his wife, "We miss you, too."

Folks wonder what kind of a man
Would leave his kids to roam
And question what kind of a woman
Lets that kind of a man come home
It was a little bit less than a choice
A little bit more than a whim
When Tom Brown left his family