Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2019 1:22:23 GMT -5
I've been wrestling with the concept of this song for a couple of years, if not longer. But late last week and over the weekend, I did some retooling and rewriting that I think finishes the song in a way I'm happy with. I'm ready to stick it in the "Win" column, or at least the "Done and Now I Have to Memorize It" column.
The lyrics (I changed the last line since making the video):
Saint Barbara of Uniontown
© 2019 by David Hanners
Dad took us for Sunday drives
Down Cumberland Road past the drift mines
He’d say, “King Coal feeds you, keeps you housed”
Him and mom in the front seat
In the back my sister Barbara and me
Could not wait to leave this town
Barbara married a miner, just like mom
Buried the stars she’d been wishing on
So deep they can’t be found
I come home from Desert Storm
Run a cutter in the mine, like dad before
Then China dumped steel and the mines closed down
Connellsville coal, Pittsburgh steel
All we export now is our kids
No work so they don’t stay around
From the shutdown mines of Chestnut Ridge
To the union hall out on Wayland Smith
Hard times don’t make a sound
My buddy, Ken, lives next door
Got me on part-time at the NAPA store
Tell myself it’ll do ‘til things turn around
But my brother-in-law plays with death
Chasing the crystal meth
Another casualty on this battleground
There’s fear and sorrow in my sister’s eyes
Anymore she just wants to lay down and die
Wonders how it all came unwound
From those days dad took us on Sunday drives
Down Route 40 past the drift mines
He promised King Coal would never let us down
The lyrics (I changed the last line since making the video):
Saint Barbara of Uniontown
© 2019 by David Hanners
Dad took us for Sunday drives
Down Cumberland Road past the drift mines
He’d say, “King Coal feeds you, keeps you housed”
Him and mom in the front seat
In the back my sister Barbara and me
Could not wait to leave this town
Barbara married a miner, just like mom
Buried the stars she’d been wishing on
So deep they can’t be found
I come home from Desert Storm
Run a cutter in the mine, like dad before
Then China dumped steel and the mines closed down
Connellsville coal, Pittsburgh steel
All we export now is our kids
No work so they don’t stay around
From the shutdown mines of Chestnut Ridge
To the union hall out on Wayland Smith
Hard times don’t make a sound
My buddy, Ken, lives next door
Got me on part-time at the NAPA store
Tell myself it’ll do ‘til things turn around
But my brother-in-law plays with death
Chasing the crystal meth
Another casualty on this battleground
There’s fear and sorrow in my sister’s eyes
Anymore she just wants to lay down and die
Wonders how it all came unwound
From those days dad took us on Sunday drives
Down Route 40 past the drift mines
He promised King Coal would never let us down