Robbie,

I found these lyrics on the web stating that the song is written by Nanci Griffith herself.

Kees


ROAD TO ABERDEEN
(Nanci Griffith)
As recorded by Nanci Griffith on "Transatlantic Sessions, Series 2, Vol. 3" (2013)

Oh, I thought I saw my mother's eyes
On a road to Aberdeen
And they did shine above a stranger's smile
The color of the sea
And one day I'll take my mother there
To see what I have seen
The eyes of her great grandfather
On the road to Aberdeen

Now I thought I heard my father's voice
Along the coast of Wales
Singing sweet of tenor in a Cardiff pub
With the wind a gust of gales
And one day I'll take my father there
To sing the harmony
He'll sing high across the water
In his grandfather's voice he'll sing

(chorus) Old land you are holy
To the children 'cross the sea
Old land may the sea understand
We are all one family

In a flower shop in Amsterdam
I saw grandmother's hands
They were the fragile grace of porcelain
With a small gold wedding band
And the tulip that I purchased there
Is pressed upon a page
In a book of psalms grandmother saved
From her grandmother's Holland days

Now my sister has grandmother's hands
And the skin of ivory
And my brother has my mother's eyes
They're the color of the sea
And me, I got my father's voice (and his legs)
To the coast of Wales I sing
And I do cherish these remembrances
On a road to Aberdeen

(chorus) It's old land and it's holy
To the children 'cross the sea
It's old land; may the sea understand
We are all one family