I was born Vernon Wayne Howell of Houston
My ma, she was just fourteen
My daddy, he was a carpenter
Who had gone before I was weaned
Now childhood, it is a lonely time
When the great keep to themselves
I had rote learned the whole New Testament
By the time that I was twelve

My daddy, he was a carpenter
My ma was just fourteen
There is a road from Houston to Waco
With the whole world in between

I met a girl and she fell pregnant
But they took my child away
And so I ran to the loving arms of the Advent Church
And there I knelt me down and I did pray
I saw a Bible and it had fallen open
On Isaiah thirty-four where it did state
That in Zion all shall read of the Lord
And none shall want for a mate

My daddy, he was a carpenter
My ma was just fourteen
There is a road from Houston to Waco
With the whole world in between
So I sought out for myself the pastor’s daughter
But he discovered me and he cast me from his fold
But then I did hear tell of a woman up here in Waco
She was sixty-nine years old
It was the will of God that the two of us should become lovers
And give birth to the chosen one
That woman never bore this manna child
But in this man she bore a sacred son

My daddy, he was a carpenter
My ma was just fourteen
There is a road from Houston to Waco
With the whole world in between

My daddy, he was a carpenter
My ma was just fourteen
There is a road from Houston to Waco
With the whole world in between