Mountain Saint

She lays her head in the Blue Ridge mountains Covered up in the tall pine Running trails where there ain't no traveling Up to the brush creek line 20 miles down a dead-end holler To meet a man for the whole year's haul Through the mud and that sulfur water Down where the panthers bawl He weighs it out on that backhoe trailer And pays with no complaint Hard as hell, like a coffin nail That little mountain saint And had every job in that old coal county The dairy bars and the dollar stores Workin' hard tryin' to raise that family She never could afford Just a girl from the mouth of hazard Bet it all on a river fool Used to sit cleaning junk he gathered When every flood come through They pulled him out of that muddy water She didn't cry or faint Went on her own where the cold wind moans That little mountain saint And always swears if you live right, you won't be seen Ain't no crown for this country hustling queen She ends her day with her favorite bourbon Warming up while it's turning cold Gets the last of the white oak burning See what the winter holds Covers up in that blacked out cabin Dreams of gold and paints She's riding high 'neath the southern sky That little mountain saint