Steve Earle
The Mountain

Last updated: 19 March 2001



The Mountain coverSongs:
  • Texas Eagle (Steve Earle)
  • Yours Forever Blue  (Steve Earle)
  • Carrie Brown (Steve Earle)
  • I'm Still In Love With You  (Steve Earle)
  • The Graveyard Shift  (Steve Earle)
  • Harlan Man (Steve Earle)
  • The Mountain (Steve Earle)
  • Outlaw's Honeymoon (Steve Earle)
  • Connemara Breakdown  (Steve Earle)
  • Leroy's Dustbowl Blues  (Steve Earle)
  • Dixieland (Steve Earle)
  • Paddy On The Beat  (Steve Earle)
  • Long, Lonesome Highway Blues  (Steve Earle)

  • Pilgrim (Steve Earle)



    Texas Eagle
    (Steve Earle)

    My Grandaddy was a railroad man
    When I was young he took me by the hand
    Dragged me to the station at the break of dawn
    Said "boy I got to show you somethin' 'fore it's gone"
    She was blue and silver - she was right on time
    We rode that Texas Eagle on the Mopac line

    We had some sandwiches that Granma packed
    We rode to Palestine and hitchhiked back
    Home in time for supper with a tale to tell
    That night I dreamed I heard that lonesome whistle wail

    When I got old enough to take the train alone
    I rode that Texas Eagle down to San Antone

    Nowadays they don't make no trains
    Just the piggyback freighters and them Amtrak things
    They shut the Eagle down awhile ago
    Sold it to the railroad down in Mexico
    But every now and then that whistle's on my mind
    I ride that Texas Eagle ‘cross the borderline



    Yours Forever Blue
    (Steve Earle)

    Since you left me baby I've been true to you
    I don't run around with every gal in town
    The way I used to do
    I'm startin' over new
    Yours forever blue

    I wrote you a letter and every word was true
    I apologized for all my lies
    And the way I treated you
    Signed it "lonely fool"
    Yours forever blue

    Lately I've been hurtin' deep inside of me
    My poor heart's broke and every ragged stroke
    Brings back your memory
    Keeps me wantin' you
    Yours forever blue

    But I don't need no doctor to tell me what to do
    ‘Bout this spell of yours ‘cause there ain't no cure
    Even if I wanted to
    Can't get over you
    Yours forever blue

    If you ever want me you know what to do
    Just call my name ‘cause I ain't ashamed
    To crawl on home to you
    If you want me to
    Yours forever blue

    I'm gonna buy myself a guitar
    Any kind'll do
    The only song I know play it soft and low
    While I moan the blues for you
    The whole night through
    Yours forever blue


    Carrie Brown
    (Steve Earle)

    The first time I saw Carrie Brown
    She was so young and fair
    A voice like spring rain fallin' down and sunlight in her hair
    I'd never seen her face before so I asked all around
    Her daddy owns a grocery store and she lives in Bristol town

    Carrie darlin' Carrie Carrie Brown I cry
    If I can't marry Carrie Brown believe I'd rather die

    I laid my last ten dollars down
    Though I didn't need a thing
    Just to touch sweet Carrie Brown
    When she handed me my change
    I hung around ‘till closin' time I scarce believed my eyes
    My darlin' walkin' arm in arm
    With a boy named Billy Wise

    I walked around in Bristol town a bitter broken man
    A heart that pined for Carrie Brown and a pistol in my hand
    We met again on State Street poor Billy Wise and me
    I shot him in Virginia and he died in Tennessee

    Now I'm down in the Bristol jail and all I do is cry
    ‘Cause the jury found me guilty and the judge says I must die
    I'm just a poor young mountain boy
    Ain't never been to town
    And I've come to ruination for the love of Carrie Brown


    I'm Still In Love With You
    (Steve Earle)

    I didn't know
    You'd be in this place tonight
    Then again I thought you might
    Now I don't know what to do
    Does it show
    When my poor heart skips a beat
    Each and every time we meet
    ‘Cause I'm still in love with you

    There you are
    Right across the room from me
    Just the way I knew you'd be
    Lookin' lonesome wild and blue
    I'm alright so far
    Just as long as you don't speak
    That's what makes my knees go weak
    ‘Cause I'm still in love with you

    I've done everything I know
    To get you off my mind
    But sometimes I can't help but hope
    That you won't walk away this time

    Then I wouldn't have to watch you go
    Wouldn't have to miss you so
    ‘Cause I'm still in love with you

    If I knew what I know now
    I'd never let you leave
    I'd make it up to you somehow
    And darlin' you'd come back to me

    Then I wouldn't have to watch you go
    Wouldn't have to miss you so
    ‘Cause I'm still in love with you
    I wouldn't need to be so blue
    Wouldn't want you like I do
    ‘Cause I'm still in love with you


    The Graveyard Shift
    (Steve Earle)

    I work the graveyard shift - stay up all night long
    You'll wake up someday
    And find your good gal gone
    If you don't treat your baby right
    She'll come see me
    Some lonely night

    When the sun goes down
    And the moon is gone
    That's when I come around
    Don't you think I won't

    On the graveyard shift - stay up all night long
    You'll wake up someday
    And your good gal gone

    I drive a Cadillac - rides just like a dream
    All the pretty gals
    Wanna ride with me
    (‘Cause) I got what all the women want
    I never say I do
    When I really don't


    Harlan Man
    (Steve Earle)

    I'm a Harlan Man
    Went down in the mine when I was barely grown
    It was easy then
    ‘Cause I didn't know what I know now
    But I'm a family man
    And it's the only life that I've ever known
    But I'm a Harlan Man
    Just as long as my luck and lungs hold out

    I'm a mountain man
    Born in east Kentucky and here I'll stay
    And if it's the good Lord's plan
    I'll wake up in the mornin' and find
    I'm lookin' at the end
    Of another long week and I can draw my pay
    ‘Cause I'm a Harlan Man
    Never catch me whinin' cause I ain't that kind

    I'm a union man
    Just like my daddy and all my kin
    I took a union stand
    No matter what the company said
    I got me two good hands
    And just as long as I'm able I won't give in
    ‘Cause I'm a Harlan Man
    A coal minin' mother ‘til the day I'm dead


    The Mountain
    (Steve Earle)

    I was born on this mountain a long time ago
    Before they knocked down the timber and strip-mined the coal
    When you rose in the mornin' 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 keeps me from worry and woe
    Well, they took everything that she gave, now they're 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 one night I lay down and woke up to find
    That my childhood was over and I went down in the mine

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


    Outlaw's Honeymoon
    (Steve Earle)

    Come on pretty baby won't you take me by the hand
    I thought maybe that I could be your man
    And for a while — we could go in style
    Come on we're goin' on an outlaw's honeymoon

    I gotta keep movin' ‘cause baby I'm a travelin' man
    And there ain't a lotta women out there that understand
    But if you do — I'll be good to you
    Come on we're goin' on an outlaw's honeymoon

    Goin' up the country — honey, don't you wanna go?
    Gotta little money all you gotta do is let me know
    I know a place we could disappear without a trace
    Come on we're goin' on an outlaw's honeymoon


    Connemara Breakdown
    (Steve Earle)

    instrumental


    Leroy's Dustbowl Blues
    (Steve Earle)

    Leroy was a farmer and an honest man
    Would have lived in Oklahoma all his days
    He just wanted left alone to work a piece of land
    But a hard wind come and blew his dreams away
    So he headed for the West Coast thought he could not lose
    Rollin' down the highway with the dustbowl blues

    It's a thousand miles from Broken Bow to Bakersfield
    And the highway's paved with heartaches all the way
    Leroy drove on lookin' for a better deal
    A place a man could settle down and stay
    But the police at the state line beat him black and blue
    Left him lyin' by the roadside with the dustbowl blues

    They say California is a paradise
    Hollywood turns night time into day
    But up along the San Joaquin those city lights
    Might as well be a million miles away
    When your kids are cold and hungry wearin' worn out shoes
    Standin' in the garden with the dustbowl blues


    Dixieland
    (Steve Earle)

    I am Kilrain and I'm a fightin' man and I come from County Clare
    And the Brits would hang me for a Fenian so I took me leave of there
    And I crossed the ocean in the "Arrianne" the vilest tub afloat
    And the captain's brother was a railroad man and he met us the boat
    So I joined up with the 20th Maine like I said my friend I'm a fighting man
    And we're marchin' south in the pouring rain and we're all goin' down to Dixieland

    I am Kilrain of the 20th Maine and we fight for Chamberlain
    ‘Cause he stood right with us when the Johnnies came like a banshee on the wind
    When the smoke cleared out of Gettysburg many a mother wept
    For many a good boy died there, sure, and the air smelted just like death

    I am Kilrain of the 20th Maine and I'd march to hell and back again
    For Colonel Joshua Chamberlain - we're all goin' down to Dixieland

    I am Kilrain of the 20th Maine and I damn all gentlemen
    Whose only worth is their father's name and the sweat of a workin' man
    Well we come from the farms and the city streets and a hundred foreign lands
    And we spilled our blood in the battle's heat
    Now we're all Americans

    I am Kilrain of the 20th Maine and did I tell you friend I'm a fightin' man
    And I'll not be back this way again, ‘cause we're all goin' down to Dixieland


    Paddy On The Beat
    (Steve Earle)

    instrumental


    Long, Lonesome Highway Blues
    (Steve Earle)

    Bound down that long, lonesome highway just as far as I can go
    ‘Til I outrun your memory
    I can't go home ‘cause I can't face another day alone
    Now that you're gone this ain't no place for me
    I want to start all over new
    But I can't lose these lonesome highway blues
    Down that long, lonesome highway just as far as I can go
    ‘Til I outrun your memory

    Bound down that long, lonesome highway just as fast as I can fly
    Just wanna go to someplace you won't be
    I'm movin' on to a new place and hold my head up high
    Where no one knows what you done to me
    A thousand miles between us now
    And still some how
    These blues'll track me down
    Down that long, lonesome highway just as far as I can go
    ‘Til I outrun your memory

    I'm bound down that long lonesome highway ‘cause it's the only place I know
    Where there ain't no clouds hangin' over me
    Leave me alone ‘cause it's a long way no matter where I go
    Nothin' but blues as far as I can see
    I wish I had you back again
    But I know I can't
    So here I go again
    Down that long, lonesome highway just as far as I can go
    ‘Til I outrun your memory


    Pilgrim
    (Steve Earle)

    I am just a pilgrim on this road, boys
    This ain't never been my home
    Sometimes the road was rocky ‘long the way, boys
    But I was never travelin' alone

    We'll meet again on some bright highway
    Songs to sing and tales to tell
    But I am just a pilgrim on this road, boys
    Until I see you fare thee well

    Ain't no need to cry for me, boys
    Somewhere down the road you'll understand
    ‘Cause I expect to touch his hand, boys
    Put a word in for you if I can


    © 2003-2007 Clint Harris  (clint@steveearle.net) – All Rights Reserved
    © 1995-2003 Lisa Kemper  – All Rights Reserved

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