Hickory | Slaid Cleaves with Michael O'Connor

🎵 Hickory | Slaid Cleaves with Michael O'Connor 🎵

Hickory - Written by Slaid Cleaves/Nathan Hamilton
Recorded Live November 26, 2022
McGonigel's Mucky Duck  |  Home of the Livest Music in Texas™
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Lyrics:
I was born in the shadow of a Tennessee mountain
In a slower and gentler time
In a cabin my grandfather built with his hands
Out of hickory walnut and pine

We hunted those hills, my father and I
So far from the bustle of town
But I'd soon see a whole way of life start to fade
As the mines all began to shut down

Heard saws on the mountain, saw the trucks rumble by
Filing past like a funeral line
Those big iron trailers were piled up high
With hickory, walnut and pine

Call it progress or a shame, well you can't stop a train
As it's barrelin' on down the line
They'll cut down the trees and name your new streets
Hickory, walnut and pine

Now the mountain top's flattened, the hickory's gone
And the streams run black as a curse
My father's been out in the barn more and more
Since the mining went bad and then worse

Well I heard his old saw, I heard his old plane
I heard his cough worsen with time
Now I stand where he lays in a box that he made
Out of hickory, walnut and pine

My children have left, for the big city jobs
I'll remain, my fate to unwind
And I'll dream of the days when the wind called my name
Through hickory, walnut and pine

Call it progress or a shame, well you can't stop a train
And you can't stop the marching of time
They'll cut down the trees and name your new streets
Hickory, walnut and pine