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 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' 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