North Country Blues
Key: AEnglish
Verse
AmCome gather round friends and I'll Gtell you a tale
Of when the Amred iron ore Gpits are run Amplenty
But the cardboard filled windows and Gold men on the benches
Tell you Amnow that the Gwhole town is Amempty
Verse
In the north end of town my own children are 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
Verse
The iron ore poured as the years passed the door
The drag lines and the shovels they was a-humming
Til one day my brother failed to come home
The same as my father before him
Verse
Well a 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
Verse
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 a half a day's shift with no reason
Verse
Then the shaft was soon shut and my work was cut
And the firing air it felt frozen
Til a man come to speak and he said in one week
That number eleven was closin'
Verse
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 nothing
Verse
So the mining gates locked and the red iron rotted
And the room smelled heavy from drinking
Where the sad silent song made the hour twice as long
As I waited for the sun to go sinking
Verse
I lived by the window as he talked to himself
This silence of tongue it was building
Then one morning's week the bed it was bare
And I's left alone with three children
Verse
The summer is gone, the ground's turning cold
The stars one by one they're a foldin'
My children will go as soon as they grow
Well there ain't nothing here now to hold them