North Country Blues

Come gather 'round friends and I'll tell you a tale
 Of when the red iron ore pits ran plenty
 But the cardboard filled windows and old men on the benches
 Tell you now that the whole town is empty
 
 In the north end of town, my own children have grown
 But I was raised on the other
 In the wee hours of youth, my mother took sick
 And I was brought up by my brother
 The iron ore poured as the years passed the door
 The drag lines in the shovels, they was humming
 'Til one day my brother failed to come home
 The same as my father before him
 Well, long winter's wait, from the window I watched
 My friends, they couldn't have been kinder
 And my school, it was cut as I quit in the spring
 To marry John Thomas, a miner
 Oh, the years passed again and the givin' was good
 With the lunch bucket filled every season
 What with three babies born, the work was cut down
 To half a day's shift with no reason
 Then, the shaft was soon shut and more work was cut
 And the fire in the air, it felt frozen
 'Til a man come to speak, and he said, "In one week"
 That number 11 was closing
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 They complained in the east, they are paying too high
 They say that your ore ain't worth digging
 That it's much cheaper down in the South American towns
 Where the miners work almost for nothin'
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 So, the mining gates locked and the red iron rotted
 And the room smelled heavy from drinking
 When the sad, silent song made the hour twice as long
 As I waited for the sun to go sinking
 I lived by the window as he talked to himself
 This silence of tongues, it was building
 'Til one morning's wake, the bed, it was bare
 And I's left alone with three children
 The summer is gone, the ground's turning cold
 The stores one by one they're folding
 My children will go as soon as they grow
 Well, there ain't nothing here now to hold them