[ti:]
[ar:]
[al:]
[00:04.27]Come gather 'round friends
[00:06.70]
[00:09.55]And I'll tell you a tale
[00:11.47]
[00:12.29]Of when the red iron armpits ran plenty
[00:16.00]
[00:16.15]But the cardboard filled windows
[00:18.47]
[00:18.47]And old men on the benches
[00:21.37]
[00:21.77]Tell you now that the whole town is empty
[00:26.84]
[00:27.48]In the north end of town
[00:32.73]
[00:33.29]My own children have grown
[00:36.78]
[00:36.78]Well I was raised on the other
[00:42.85]
[00:42.89]In the wee hours of youth
[00:45.89]
[00:45.89]My mother took sick
[00:50.19]
[00:50.67]And I was brought up by my brother
[00:53.84]
[00:56.07]The iron ore poured
[00:57.22]
[00:57.87]As the years passed the door
[01:00.80]
[01:02.48]The drag lines an' the shovels they was a-humming
[01:03.71]
[01:07.52]Till one day my brother
[01:08.72]
[01:10.42]Failed to come home
[01:12.27]
[01:14.52]The same as my father before him
[01:17.92]
[01:21.99]Well a long winter's wait
[01:23.46]
[01:24.14]From the window I watched
[01:25.77]
[01:28.15]My friends they couldn't have been kinder
[01:28.20]
[01:33.13]And my schooling was cut
[01:36.05]
[01:36.61]As I quit in the spring
[01:37.99]
[01:40.59]To marry John Thomas, a miner
[01:42.04]
[01:42.75]Oh the years passed again
[01:48.71]
[01:49.52]And the givin' was good
[01:51.75]
[01:53.08]With the lunch bucket filled every season
[01:55.20]
[02:00.95]What with three babies born
[02:01.93]
[02:02.61]The work was cut down
[02:03.62]
[02:07.23]To a half a day's shift with no reason
[02:09.17]
[02:14.36]Then the shaft was soon shut
[02:16.55]
[02:16.70]And more work was cut
[02:17.98]
[02:20.19]And the fire in the air, it felt frozen
[02:22.27]
[02:26.45]Till a man come to speak
[02:30.31]
[02:32.75]And he said in one week
[02:34.57]
[02:34.99]That number eleven was closin'
[02:36.73]
[02:42.96]They complained, in the east
[02:43.83]
[02:44.60]They are paying too high
[02:46.20]
[02:49.60]They say that your ore ain't worth digging
[02:49.72]
[02:54.32]That it's much cheaper down
[02:55.09]
[02:56.62]In the South American towns
[03:00.83]
[03:01.28]Where the miners work almost for nothing
[03:02.58]
[03:09.78]So the mining gates locked
[03:10.69]
[03:11.31]And the red iron rotted
[03:13.60]
[03:17.83]And the room smelled heavy from drinking
[03:18.29]
[03:22.34]And the sad, silent song
[03:22.95]
[03:23.82]Made the hour twice as long
[03:25.91]
[03:30.18]As I waited for the sun to go sinking
[03:32.09]
[03:36.54]I lived by the window
[03:37.26]
[03:38.83]As he talked to himself
[03:39.63]
[03:43.00]This silence of tongues it was building
[03:43.63]
[03:46.13]Then one morning's wake
[03:51.13]
[03:52.09]The bed it was bare
[03:56.25]
[03:57.28]And I was left alone with three children
[04:01.69]
[04:02.65]The summer is gone
[04:07.28]
[04:07.28]The ground's turning cold
[04:08.24]
[04:08.84]The stores one by one they're a foldin'
[04:10.64]
[04:14.49]My children will go
[04:15.11]
[04:16.74]As soon as they grow
[04:17.76]
[04:21.62]Well, there ain't nothing here now to hold them
[04:25.33]