Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker is a cover of the 2004 song by Old Crow Medicine Show, which itself completed an unfinished 1973 demo by Bob Dylan. The original demo, titled “Rock Me, Mama,” was recorded during the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid soundtrack sessions and circulated as a bootleg until Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show wrote the verses, creating a 50/50 co-writing credit with Dylan.
Rucker recorded his version for his 2013 album True Believers after being inspired by a faculty band performing the song at his daughter’s high school talent show. His rendition, featuring backing vocals from Lady Antebellum, became a massive commercial success, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, winning a Grammy Award, and eventually achieving Diamond certification for surpassing 10 million units in sales and streams.
Though the original sketch of this song was by Bob Dylan, Old Crow Medicine Show released a certified platinum version in the 2000s. Darius Rucker’s 2013 cover became the #1 song on Hot Country radio.
Dylan originally recorded the demo during the soundtrack sessions for Pat Barrett and Billy The Kid, an album he released in conjunction with Sam Peckinpah’s movie of the same name.
[Verse 1]
Heading down south to the land of the pines
I’m thumbing my way into North Caroline
Staring up the road and pray to God I see headlights
I made it down the coast in seventeen hours
Picking me a bouquet of dogwood flowers
And I’m a-hoping for Raleigh, I can see my baby tonight
[Chorus]
So rock me, mama, like a wagon wheel
Rock me, mama, any way you feel
Hey, mama, rock me
Rock me, mama, like the wind and the rain
Rock me, mama, like a southbound train
Hey, mama, rock me
[Verse 2]
Running from the cold up in New England
I was born to be a fiddler in an old time string band
My baby plays the guitar, I pick a banjo now
Oh, north country winters keep a-getting me down
Lost my money playing poker so I had to leave town
But I ain’t turning back to living that old life no more
[Chorus]
So rock me, mama, like a wagon wheel
Rock me, mama, any way you feel
Hey, mama, rock me
Yeah, rock me, mama, like the wind and the rain
Rock me, mama, like a southbound train
Hey, mama, rock me
[Verse 3]
Walking to the south out of Roanoke
I caught a trucker out of Philly had a nice long toke
But he’s a headed west from the Cumberland gap
To Johnson City, Tennessee
And I got to get a move on before the sun
I hear my baby calling my name and I know that she’s the only one
And if I die in Raleigh at least I will die free
[Chorus]
So rock me, mama, like a wagon wheel
Rock me, mama, any way you feel
Hey, mama, rock me
Oh, rock me, mama, like the wind and the rain
Rock me, mama, like a southbound train
Hey, hey, mama, rock me
So rock me, mama, like a wagon wheel
Rock me, mama, any way you feel
Hey, hey, mama, rock me
Mama, rock me
Mama, rock me
Rock me, mama, like the wind and the rain
Rock me, mama, like a southbound train
Hey, yeah-yeah, mama, rock me
You can rock me
Rock me
