Showboat coming up the river   See her lanterns flicker in the gentle breeze   I can hear the crickets singing in the evening   Old Dixie Lily moving past the cypress trees      My little boat she rocks easy   I've been catching catfish in the creek all day   Oh and I've never seen ladies like those on the big boats   Must be fancy breeding lets you live that way      Dixie Lily, chugging like a grand old lady   Paddles hitting home in the noonday sun   Ploughing through the water with your whistles blowing   Down from Louisiana on the Vicksburg run      Papa says that I'm a dreamer   Says them skeetas bit me one too many times   Oh but I never get lonesome living on the river   Watching old Lily leave the world behind