Loyston (feat. Jerry Douglas)

The Lake comes up and The Lake goes down

Like the sun on my hometown

Red Clay Mud is hallowed ground

The Lake comes up and The Lake goes down

Said that the power they would generate

Would revolutionize our state

A brand new deal from TVA

But Loyston town was in the way

Folks drove up from Knoxville so to see

Man stop a river with concrete

The men work hard in the summer heat

Unless the wall should ever leak

The Lake comes up and The Lake goes down

Like the sun on my hometown

Red Clay Mud is hallowed ground

The Lake comes up and The Lake goes down

The name they chose was Norris Lake

And I watched a dam take shape

Gentle shoals turned into waves

Empty holes our flooded graves

The water rolled up through the hills

It washed away the soil I tilled

It washed away the house I built

Foundation blocks now sandy silt

The Lake comes up and The Lake goes downLike the sun on my hometown

Red Clay Mud is hallowed ground

The Lake comes up and The Lake goes down

Old Clinch River sent below

The valley floor that I've always known

I moved my family to a home

With electric power and a telephone

The blackest sky on a winter's night

Is by far a warmer sight

Than that pale green glowing light

Seen from the shores of my birthright

The Lake comes up and The Lake goes down

Like the sun on my hometown

Red Clay Mud is hallowed ground

The Lake comes up and The Lake goes down

Summertime on the Loyston Sea

And you forget what you cannot see

There's a town that lies buried

Beneath your boats and water skis

Out of sight and out of my mind

Is my town that I left behind

Dive down deep but all you'll find

Are broken dreams and fishing lines

Say The Lake comes up and The Lake goes down

Like the sun on my hometown

Red clay mud is hallowed ground

The Lake comes up and the lake goes down

Say The Lake comes up and The Lake goes down

Like the sun on my hometown

Red Clay Mud is hallowed ground

The Lake comes up and The Lake goes down