I can’t remember exactly where this song came from, but it had something to do with my mom’s death and the three paths that led from our house through the surrounding woods.

Momma died last year
Jose went back to the ocean
We’ve grown short on good memories
Around here these days
No more home cooked meals
No more heartstrings to pull on
Just the same old garden path
Leading into the gray

Chorus:
It took three angels to guide me
Out of the woods and up the walk
To a place that looks like home
They speak to me softly
With kind, familiar voices
Three angels, three chances
And three bad choices

When I was a child
There were biscuits on the table
Grass to cut and sins to chase me
Where I shouldn’t go
One day I woke up
With no one left to save me
The yard’s full of widow’s weeds
I can’t find my hoe

Chorus:
It took three angels to guide me
Out of the woods and up the walk
To a place that looks like home
They speak to me softly
With kind, familiar voices
Three angels, three chances
And three bad choices

I’ve heard angels wail
About higher roads not taken
Songs that echo with bad timing
Like coon dogs at night
There’s something out there
Haunting those woods like a ghost
Wide-eyed for lost salvation
Staring into the light

Bridge:
A community raises a child
Two women lead him astray
Three angels bring him back home
But nothing can make him stay

Chorus:
It took three angels to guide me
Out of the woods and up the walk
To a place that looks like home
They speak to me softly
With kind, familiar voices
Three angels, three chances
And three bad choices

© Kent Newsome and Ronnie Jeffrey