North Country Blues

Simplified Intro: 
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Come and gather round friends and I‘ll tell you a tale 
 
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Of when the red iron ore pits run a-plenty 
 
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But the cardboard filled windows and old men on the benches 
 
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Tell ya now that the whole town is empty 
 
 
In the north end of town my own children are grown 
But I was raised on the other 
In the wee hours of youth my mother took sick 
And I was brought up by my brother 
 
The iron ore poured as the years passed the door 
The drag lines and shovels, they was hummin‘ 
‘Til one day my brother failed to come home 
The same as my father before him 
 
With a long winters wait from the window I watched 
My friends, they couldn‘t have been kinder 
And my school it was cut as I quit in the spring 
To marry John Thomas, a miner 
 
Oh the years passed again and the giving was good 
With a lunch bucket filled every season 
But with three babies born, the work was cut down 
To half a day‘s shift with no reason 
 
An‘ the shaft was soon shut and my work was cut 
And the fire in the air, it felt frozen 
‘Til a man come to speak and he said in one week 
That number eleven was closing 
 
They complain in the east they payin‘ to high 
They say that your ore ain‘t worth diggin‘ 
That it‘s much cheaper down in the South American towns 
Where the miners work almost for nothin‘ 
 
So the minin‘ gates locked and the red iron rotted 
And the room smelled heavy from drinkin‘ 
When the sad silent song made the hour twice as long 
As I waited for the sun to go sinking 
 
I lived by the window as he talked to himself 
The silence of tongues, it was building 
‘Til one morning‘s wake, the bed it was bare 
And I‘s left alone with three children 
 
The summer is gone, the ground‘s turning cold 
The stores one by one they are folding 
My children will go as soon as they grow 
For there ain‘t nothin‘ here now to hold them 
 
×× Simplified Interversal thing: 
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