Steve Earle Album

My grandaddy was a railroad manWhen I was young he took me by the handDragged me to the station at the break of dawnSaid "boy I got to show you somethin' 'fore it's gone"She was blue and silver - she was right on timeWe rode that texas eagle on the mopac line
We had some sandwiches that granma packedWe rode to palestine and hitchhiked backHome in time for supper with a tale to tellThat night I dreamed I heard that lonesome whistle wail

When I got old enough to take the train aloneI rode that texas eagle down to san antone
Nowadays they don't make no trainsJust the piggyback freighters and them amtrak thingsThey shut the eagle down awhile agoSold it to the railroad down in mexicoBut every now and then that whistle's on my mindI ride that texas eagle ¡®cross the borderline

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

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 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
âЂ?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
âЂ?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
âЂ?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
âЂ?Cause I'm still in love with you
I wouldn't need to be so blue
Wouldn't want you like I do
âЂ?Cause I'm still in love with you

I work the graveyard shift - stay up all night longYou'll wake up somedayAnd find your good gal goneIf you don't treat your baby rightShe'll come see meSome lonely night
When the sun goes downAnd the moon is goneThat's when I come aroundDon't you think I won't

On the graveyard shift - stay up all night longYou'll wake up somedayAnd your good gal gone
I drive a cadillac - rides just like a dreamAll the pretty galsWanna ride with me(¡®cause) I got what all the women wantI never say I doWhen I really don't

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

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

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 ¡º 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 ¡º I'll be good to you
Come on we're goin' on an outlaw's honeymoon

Goin' up the country ¡º 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

[No lyrics]

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

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 Dixielan

[No lyrics]

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

1, 2, 3, 4

I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys
I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys
I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys
This ain't never been my home
Sometimes the road is rocky 'long the way, boys
Sometimes the road is rocky 'long the way, boys
Sometimes the road is rocky 'long the way, boys
But I was never traveling alone
We meet again on some highway
Songs to sing and tales to tell

But I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys
Until I see you, fare thee well

Ain't no need to cry for me, boys
Ain't no need to cry for me, boys
There ain't no need to cry for me, boys
Somewhere down the road you'll understand
'Cause I expect to touch his hand, boys
I expect to touch his hand, boys
I expect to touch his hand, boys
I'll put a word in for you if I can
We meet again on some highway
Songs to sing and tales to tell
But I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys
I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys
I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys
Until I see you, fare thee well


I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys
I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys
I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys
Until I see you, fare thee well
(fading)
I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys
I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys
I'm just a pilgrim on this road, boys