He rode easy in the saddle   He was tall and lean and at first 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 folks just called him   The Reverend Mr. Black, he was poor as a beggar   But he rode like a king   Sometimes in the evening, I'd hear him sing      I gotta walk that lonesome valley, I got to walk it by myself   Oh, nobody else can walk it for me, I got to walk it by myself   You got to walk that lonesome valley, you got to walk it by yourself   Oh, nobody else can walk it for you, you got to walk it by yourself      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 day a lumberjack came in   And it wasn't to pray      Yeah, he kicked open the meeting house door   And he cussed everybody up and down the floor   Then, when things got quiet in the place   He walked up and cusses in the preacher's face      He hit that Reverend like a kick of a mule   And to my way of thinkin' it took a real fool   To turn the other face to that lumber jack   But that's what he did, The Reverend Mr. Black      He stood like a rock, a man among men   And he let that lumberjack hit him again   And then with a voice as quiet as could be   He cut him down like a big oak tree when he said      I gotta walk that lonesome valley, I got to walk it by myself   Oh, nobody else can walk it for me, I got to walk it by myself   You got to walk that lonesome valley, you got to walk it by yourself   Oh, nobody else can walk it for you, you got to walk it by yourself      It's been many years since we had to part   And I guess I learned his ways by heart   I can still hear his sermon's ring   Down in the valley where he used to sing      I followed him, yes, sir and I don't regret it   And I hope I will always be a credit to his memory   'Cause I want you to understand   The Reverend Mr. Black was my old man      I gotta walk that lonesome valley, I got to walk it by myself   Oh, nobody else can walk it for me, I got to walk it by myself   You got to walk that lonesome valley, you got to walk it by yourself   Oh, nobody else can walk it for you, you got to walk it by yourself