What's your mama's name, child?
What's your mama's name?
Thirty-some-odd years ago a young man came to Memphis
Asking 'bout a rose that used to blossom in his world
People never took the time to mind the young man's questions
Until one day they heard him ask a little green-eyed girl
What's your mama's name, child?
What's your mama's name?
Does she ever talk about
A place called New Orleans?
Has she ever mentioned
A man named Buford Wilson?
What's your mama's name, child?
What's your mama's name?
Twenty-some-odd years ago a lonely man in Memphis
Spent some years and many tears lookin' for a girl
Whenever he began to ask those same old simple questions
People did not understand the longing in his heart
A year and some-odd days ago an old man died in Memphis
Just another wayward soul the County had to claim
Inside the old man's ragged coat they found a faded letter
It said you've got a daughter and her eyes are Wilson green
What's your mama's name, child?
What's your mama's name?
Does she ever talk about
A place called New Orleans?
Has she ever mentioned
A man named Buford Wilson?
What's your mama's name, child?
What's your mama's name?
What's your mama's name, child?
What's your mama's name?