Piney Mountains

Sit down, buddy, we'll drink and smoke

Woman, don't you weep for me

My hands can't fiddle, and my heart's been broke

You damned old piney mountains

I lost my fingers in the Galax Mills

Buddy, sing a sad old song

And my heart got broke in the yew pine hills

Lord, and my time ain't long

I started into loggin' when I was in my prime

Woman, don't you weep for me

Hitchin' up the spruce to the big drag lines

You damned old piney mountains

Where the skidders start a-buckin' as the gears come down

Buddy, sing a sad old song

Makin' God's own thunder on the new-cut ground

Lord, and my time ain't long

We was fightin' over nothin' and drinkin' too hard

Woman, don't you weep for me

Ridin' up to camp on the flat-wheel car

You damned old piney mountains

30 years hangin' on the old chain brake

Buddy, sing a sad old song

Laid off and paid off in '58

Lord, and my time ain't long

The skidders got sold to a scrap iron yard

Woman, don't you weep for me

We moved down Virginia when the times got hard

You damned old piney mountains

Lost my fingers to a steel band saw

Buddy, sing a sad old song

Now my fiddle just hangs untuned on the wall

Lord, and my time ain't long

And the trees have growed up on the logging road

Woman, don't you weep for me

And the wildflowers bloom where the big Shays blowed

You damned old piney mountains

There's nothin' left for me but to drink and smoke

Buddy, sing a sad old song

My hands can't fiddle, and my heart's been broke

Lord, and my time ain't long