The Ballad of Jacob Jones

After midnight when he did the deed

Threw his life away forever in his prime at 33

But the years he spent confined for what he did the summer night

Not a second did he doubt the way he let his lover die

In their twenties only laughter in the air

On a damp and sunny morning their I dos they did declare

And they walked out of that chapel just like all who came before

She was his forever he was hers forevermore

And as the hammer comes down

And a sentence of life it begins

Don't cry for me cause one day you'll see

That I did it for love not for sin

And I'd do it all over again

All day long Jacob toiled in the mines

He was good at what he did he had a fire in his eyes

And he did it all so he could come home every single night

And lay beside the girl he loved he proudly called his wife

To his fire she was water swift and strong

Abby never showed a drop fear her strength was miles long

And she saw the way he loved her with a heart he buried deep

Underneath the house they built to raise a family

One day out along that path he lost his way

Starting drinking started using breaking every vow he made

And poor abby she tried everything she knew to steer him out

But he just went on downward as the laughter fizzled out

And as the hammer comes down

And a sentence of life it begins

Don't cry for me cause one day you'll see

That I did it for love not for sin

And I'd do it all over again

After ten long years seemed gone to waste

Abby took up with a long time friend who always showed her grace

And the two of them in secret came to know a deeper truth

Than Abby ever felt when she was helping Jacob through

On the night that Abby wrote her final page

Jacob came home early to the bed he never made

And he stumbled in to find a pain that almost took his life

Cause there he found his Abby with another by her side

So he drew his fathers knife

And with grieving throes of passion he took his lovers life

And as the hammer comes down

And a sentence of life it begins

Don't cry for me cause one day you'll see

That I did it for love not for sin

And I'd do it all over again

And I'd do it all over again