Maces Spring

I awoke and thought I heard the rumbling of a train

Time had come to dig up root and wander off again

I could feel the pull from the valley way below

A hundred miles along the ridge

Clinch mountain is my home

So I started walking

Going from side to side

The grade built like a canyon

Two fold counties wide

Soon I'll reach the bottom

Like a bird upon the wing

Down in Maces Spring

Green fields of Virginia

Where the fairest sunbeams play

Where the Holsten River flows and the red buds sway

I'll leave behind my mountain home

The rippling foam and me

Float it down to Knoxville town

Pleasures I will seek

Then I heard a mourning dove

Call from up on high

She told me of the beauty there

And the star-filled nights

The songs of my mountain home

We all love to sing

Down in Maces Spring

So I started climbing going from side to side

The grade built like a canyon

Two fold counties wide

Soon I'll reach the ridge-top

Like a bird upon the wing

Over Maces Spring