"Hickory Wind"

In the line "I'd started out younger at most ev'rything" in "Hickory Wind," the "-thing" of "ev'rything" is sung with a melisma (B A G), giving a sense of the breadth of "ev'ry-."

"You're Still on My Mind"

Some of the "heart"s in the recurring line "An empty bottle, a broken heart, and you're still on my mind" in "You're Still on My Mind" are sung with a melisma (C# B), musically giving a sense of being "broken."

The song is in A major, and there are some places in the chord progression where returning to the tonic chord or moving away from it mirrors the lyrics.  At the end of the line "'One more,' I keep sayin', 'and then I'll go home,'" the chord progression returns to A major, and since this is the tonic chord, there's a musical sense of "go[ing] home."  In the second verse, the chord progression starts on A major but then moves to D major in the same way that the narrator's attention seems to shift from his own problems to watching the "people [who] are dancin' and havin' their fun."  In the following line, however ("And I sit here thinkin' about what you have done"), the narrator returns his focus to his own situation, and the chord progression moves back to A major to match.  During the next line ("To try and forget you, I turn to the wine"), the chord progression moves from A major to D major, in the same way that the narrator once again tries to shift his focus, but at the end of the last line ("An empty bottle, a broken heart, and you're still on my mind"), the narrator returns to thinking about his troubles and the chord progression moves back to A major.

Because the line "An empty bottle, a broken heart, and you're still on my mind" occurs at the end of every verse, there's a sense of the constancy of being "still on my mind."

"The Christian Life"

There are some significant numbers in the musical structure of "The Christian Life."  The song is in 3/4, and aside from one E major, the chord progression consists of three chords (D major, G major, and A major).  The song is based on musical threes in the same way that the narrator's Christian life is based on the Trinity.

Most of the lines are four measures long, and with three beats in each measure, this adds up to twelve, which is also a significant number in Christianity (the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles, for example).  This doesn't seem to be as important as the threes, however.

That one E major chord coincides with "a whole world of" in the line "They say I'm missing a whole world of fun."  Because of the accidental in E major (G#) and because the chord's root is something other than the tonic (D), subdominant (G), or dominant (A), there's a musical illustration of the incongruity between this world of sin (the "things I despise") and the Christian life.

Appropriately, the phrase "walk in the light" comes from 1 John 1:7:  "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."

"I Am a Pilgrim"

"I Am a Pilgrim" contains a number of Biblical references.

"I'm going down to the River of Jordan / Just to bathe my wearisome soul" is a reference to Naaman in the Old Testament.  In 2 Kings 5, the prophet Elisha tells Naaman to dip himself in the Jordan River seven times to be cured of his leprosy.

Although the focus is a bit different, the lines "If I can just touch the hem of His garment, good Lord / Then I'd know He'd take me home" seem to refer to healings that Jesus performed after the fringe of His garment was touched, first by a woman with a discharge of blood (Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, and Luke 8:43-48) and then by the sick people of Gennesaret (Matthew 14:34-36 and Mark 6:53-56).

The lines "I've got a home in that yonder city, good Lord / And it's not, not made by hand" are a reference to 2 Corinthians 5:1:  "For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

"Old John Robertson"

In "Old John Robertson," the three syllables of "ev'rywhere" in the line "People ev'rywhere would laugh behind his back" are each sung to a different pitch (E D C#), musically giving a sense of breadth.