About the song
There’s something profoundly stirring about the way **Willie Nelson** sings about mortality. It’s never with fear or drama, but with a kind of weathered grace—an acceptance that feels as old as the land itself. That sensibility is woven deeply into **“Gravedigger,”** a track that originally came from **Dave Matthews**, but finds a haunting, heartfelt resonance in **Nelson’s** voice.
**Willie Nelson – Gravedigger** is, in many ways, a meditation on the lives that pass unnoticed, the names etched into headstones, and the stories behind them that are often left untold. In **Nelson’s** hands, the song becomes less of a lament and more of a quiet prayer—one filled with empathy for the forgotten. His trademark phrasing, slightly behind the beat and flecked with vulnerability, adds a layer of gravitas that feels entirely natural. It’s not just that he’s singing about death—it’s that he’s singing *for* the dead, offering a kind of musical eulogy that feels as sincere as it is sparse.
Musically, **“Gravedigger”** is stripped down and acoustic, allowing **Willie’s** unmistakable voice to sit front and center. His guitar work on **Trigger**, that famously battered classical guitar, offers just enough melodic ornamentation to complement the lyric without ever overwhelming it. The production is intimate, almost as though he’s singing the song across a kitchen table rather than into a studio microphone. This closeness adds to the emotional impact, inviting the listener not only to hear the song—but to *feel* it.
What makes **Willie Nelson – Gravedigger** especially compelling is how it reflects his long relationship with themes of impermanence and remembrance. Throughout his career, he’s always had a poet’s eye for the fleeting, and here, that gaze turns toward the quiet dignity of lives lived in obscurity. It’s a song that asks us to pause, to wonder about the names we pass in cemeteries, and to recognize the stories they represent.
Video
Lyrics
Cyrus Jones 1810 to 1913
Made his
Great grandchildren believe
He could live to a 103
A hundred and three is forever
When you’re just a little kid
So, Cyrus Jones lived forever
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
Muriel Stonewall 1903 to 1954
She lost both of her babies
In the second great war
Now, you should never have
To watch your only children
Lowered in the ground
That means
You should never have
To bury your own babies
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
Ring around the rosey
Pocket full o’posey
Ashes to ashes
We all fall down
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
Little Mikey Carson ’67 to ’75
He rode his bike
Like the devil
Until the day he died
When he grows up
He wants to be
Mr. Vertigo
On the flying trapeze
Oh, 1940 to 1992
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Grave digger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
I can feel the rain
I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
Grave digger
