Kathy Mattea - Lawrence Jones

Lawrence Jones
(Performed by Kathy Mattea)


The air is thick as silence
You can cut it with a knife
A man lies in the hospital
Draining out his life
The trucks are on the back roads
In the dark their headlights shine
There’s one man dead
On the Harlan County line

Anger like a poison
Is eating at your soul
Your thoughts are loud as gunfire
Your face is hard as coal
Bitterness like buckshot
Explodes inside your mind
There’s one man dead
On the Harlan County line

A miner’s life is fragile
It can shatter just like ice
But those who bear the struggle
Have always paid the price
There’s blood upon the contract
Like vinegar in wine
There’s one man dead
On the Harlan County line

From the river bridge at High Splint
To the Brookside railroad track
You can feel a long strength building
That can never be turned back
The dead go forward with us
Not one is left behind
There’s one man dead
On the Harlan County line

The night is cold as iron
You can feel it in your bones
It settles like a shroud upon
The grave of Lawrence Jones
The graveyard shift is walking
From the bath house to the mine
There’s one man dead
On the Harlan County line