1. LOADING COAL

My pappy said when I was seventeen you're six feet tall and your face is clean
And it don't look right for a boy that old to not make a livin' loadin' coal
Loadin' coal loadin' coal I'm a double first cousin to a dad blamed mole
Never get rich for to save my soul and forty 'leven years a loadin' coal loadin' coal
Ain't never got acquainted with a dollar bill and I don't ever reckon that I ever will
A dollar ain't made for a fellar I'm told that scoops up a livin' loadin' coal
Loadin' coal loadin' coal...

I cussed everything in the mining camp from a shovel and my pick to my carbide lamp
But I know mighty well till I grow old I'll still be a cussin' but loadin' coal
Loadin' coal loadin' coal...

I know just as well as coal is black one of these days the mines were strike
And I'll sit around starvin' till I'm finally told
There's a nickel more a ton for loadin' coal
Loadin' coal loadin' coal...


2. SLOW RIDER

I ride an old paint he's on the worry side
And I'm a saddle tramp about to cross the great divide
Where there's grass in the coolies and water in the drawl
And the forty pound saddle won't make us both raw

Slow rider, slow rider move on a little more
The sky boss is waitin' at the big ranch house door

I can't help but missin' the daughters that I had
One went to Denver the other went bad
My young wife died in a poolroom fight
But I try to keep singin' from morning till night

Slow rider, slow rider move on a little more
The sky boss is waitin' at the big ranch house door

Whenever I die take my saddle from the wall
Strap it on snuffy lead him out of the stall
Throw me on his back and turn him toward the west
He knows how to take me to the spot I love best

Slow rider, slow rider move on a little more
The sky boss is waitin' at the big ranch house door


3. LUMBERJACK

I lived on a farm out in Iowa
I pulled the corn and I worked in the hay
Got trapped by a girl but I wiggled free
Heard the Oregon timber callin' me

Will you tell me somethin', Mr lumberjack?
Is it one for forward and three for back?
Is it two for stop or four for go?
Boy, ask a whistle punk I don't know

Well, I learned this fact from a logger named Ray
You don't cut timber on a windy day
Stay out of the woods when the moisture's low
Or you ain't gonna live to collect your dough

Will you tell me somethin', Mr lumberjack?
Is it one for forward and three for back?
Is it two for stop or four for go?
Boy, ask a whistle punk I don't know

Well you work in the woods from morning to night
You laugh and sing and you cuss and fight
On Saturday night you go to Eugene
And on a Sunday morning your pockets are clean

Will you tell me somethin', Mr lumberjack?
Is it one for forward and three for back?
Is it two for stop or four for go?
Boy, ask a whistle punk I don't know


4. DORRAINE OF PONCHARTRAIN

As I walked by the lake one day by chance my Dorraine passed my way
Then she and I walked hand in hand on the banks of Ponchartrain
I pinned a flower on her heart, I swore we'd never be apart
She vowed her love forever and as I kissed her did the same

Dorraine, my Dorraine, my dark haired little angel
My belle of Ponchartrain

We sat down on the dock and with our hearts and fingers locked
We laughed and talked and joked about when our names are the same
And joking I said honey are you marrying me for money
And it took just one quick look to tell it hurt my dear Dorraine

She jumped and stood above me and she cried why you don't love me
I'm rowing home across the lake you won't see me again
I called and called some more but she rowed fast from the shore
And the clouds brought by a wind began to rain on Ponchartrain

Dorraine, I called Dorraine
Come back my little angel my belle of Ponchartrain

The storm should make her learn that she should make a swift return
But as the rain fell harder I lost sight of my Dorraine
As panic gripped my heart I drew the oars and made my start
To look for her on raging waters and the rain on Ponchartrain

At darkness I still called but no one heard my cries at all
And when the daybreak came then others helped me look for my Dorraine
But there was not a thing afloat except the oars from her rowboat
For all was lost upon the choppy waves and rain on Ponchartrain

Now I come day after day to where my sweetheart rowed away
And I gaze across the water of the rainy Ponchartrain
Just one thing and nothing more ever floated back to shore
Was this flower I hold it is the one I pinned on my Dorraine

Dorraine, my Dorraine, my dark haired little angel
My belle of Ponchartrain


5. GOING TO MEMPHIS

Bring a drink of water Leroy
Bring a drink of water, no
If I could get to the mercy man
He'd give me some I know

I got a gal in Vicksburg
Bertha is her name
Wish I's tied to Bertha
Instead of this ball and chain

I'm goin' to Memphis, that's right Lord, yeah

A dude took all my money
Wouldn't let me see the cards
I owe the boss about a hundred years
For sleepin' in his backyard

I'm goin' to Memphis, yeah Memphis
Yeah I'm goin' to Memphis

Like a bitter weed, I'm a bad seed
But when that levee's through and I am too
Let the honky tonk roll on
Come mornin' I'll be gone

I'm goin' to Memphis, yeah Memphis

I never been to Chicago
But it must be a mighty fine place, that's right
I couldn't get past Tennessee
With Mississippi all over my face

I'm goin' to Memphis, that's right Lord, Memphis

Well, the freezin' ground at night
Is my own foldin' bed
Pork salad is my bread and meat
And it will be till I'm dead

Well, I brought me a little water
In a Mr. Prince Albert can
But the boss man caught me drinkin' it
And I believe, he broke my hand

They all call me crazy for sassin' Mr. Scott
My brother was killed for a deed I did
But I dis remember what, yeah

Well another boy is down
The shovel burned him out
Let me stand on his body
To see what the shoutin's about

I'm goin' to Memphis, yeah I'm goin' to Memphis

Like a bitter weed, I'm a bad seed
But when that levee's through and I am too
Let the honky tonk roll on
Come mornin' I'll be gone

I'm goin' to Memphis, yeah Memphis


6. WHEN PAPA PLAYED THE DOBRO

My papa was a hobo when they delivered me
We didn't have a doctor cause he couldn't pay the fee
But when the goin' got too bad to ease his misery
Papa played the dobro this a way and he'd go

When company would come around he kept the dobro hid
He knew he couldn't play the way the other players did
Why the guitar's resonator was a gallon bucket lid
But papa played the dobro this a way and he'd go

Well now that papa's gone away it's hanging by the flue
The top of it's rusted and the strings're rusty too
It won't ever sound the way that it did when it was new
When papa played the dobro this a way and he'd go


7. BOSS JACK

Pick a lot o'cotton, drag a long sack
Comin' across the field, well, I see Boss Jack
He's a ridin' straddle of a single foot roan
When you know that horse, you'll leave him alone

The ole roan's got green in his eyes
Mean as the devil and twice as wise
A fire in his nose and a bow in his back
Can't nobody ride him but Boss Jack

Come on children, bend your back
Work a little faster, fill your sack
Then you hitch up the wagon, take it to the gin
Finish pickin' before the winter sets in

Now here while back, when the crop was laid by
Remember who took us on a big fish fry?
Caught a heap of catfish, goggle eye and carp
Dashed and sang to the guitar and the harp

Well, someday old Boss Jack is gonna set us all free
Gabriel gonna blow for you and me
Angels gonna bring that chariot from above floppin'
Their wings like a turtle dove, come on children


8. OLD DOC BROWN

He was just an old country doctor in a little country town
Fame and fortune had passed him by though we never saw him frown
As day by day in his kindly way he'd serve us one and all
Many a patient forgot to pay although Doc's fees were small

Though he needed his dimes and there were times that he'd receive a fee
He'd pass it onto some poor soul that needed it worse than he
He had to sell his furniture couldn't pay his office rent
So to a dusty room over a livery stable Doc Brown and his satchel went

And on the hitchin' post at the kerb below to advertise his wares
He nailed a little sign that read Doc Brown has moved upstairs
There he kept on helping folks get well,for his heart was jus'pure gold,
But anyone with eyes could see that Doc was gettin' old.

Then one day he didn't answer when they knocked upon his door
Old Doc Brown was layin' down but his soul was no more
They found him there in that old black suit on his face was a smile of content
But all the money they could find on him was a quarter and a copper cent

So they opened up his ledger and what they saw gave their hearts a pull
Beside each debtor's name old Doc had write these words Paid In Full
Old Doc should had a funeral fine enough for a king
It's a ghastly joke our town was broke and no one could give a thing

'Cept Jones an undertaker he did mighty well
Donatin' an old iron casket he had never been able to sell
And the funeral procession it wasn't much for grace and pomp and the style
But those wagon loads of mourners they stretched out for more than a mile

We wanted to give him a monument we kinda figured we owed him one
Cause he made our town a better place for all the good he'd done
We pulled up that old hitchin' post where Doc had nailed a sign
We'd painted it white and to all of us it certainly did look fine

Now the rains and the snows have washed away our white trimmin's of paint
There ain't nothin' left but Doc's own sign and that's gettin' pretty faint
But you can still see that old hitchin' post as if in answer to our prayers
Mutely tellin' the whole wide world Doc Brown has moved upstairs