Texty: Levon Helm. Dirt Farmer. The Mountain.

(Steve Earle)

I was born on this mountain a long long time ago
Before they knocked down the timber and stripped mined all the coal
When you rose up in the morning before it was light
To go down in that dark hole and come back up at night
I was born on this mountain, this mountain's my home
She holds me and she keeps me from a worry and a woe
Well they took everything she gave, she gave it now she's gone
But I'll die on this mountain, this mountain's my home

I was young on this mountain but now I am old
And I knew every holler, every cool swimmin' hole
Til a one night I lay down and I woke up to find
That my childhood was over I went back down in the mine

There's a hole in this mountain it's dark and it's deep
And God only knows all the secrets that it keeps
There's a chill in the air only miners can feel
There're ghosts in the tunnels that the company sealed