Paul Lamont

Lyrics

Just A Coal Miner

Well I am just my father’s son
Followed his footsteps deep underground
Dug out a living from down in the earth
Just a coal miner straight from my birth
It’s a hard day’s work for little pay
Just a young man keepin’ the family way

But it paid the mortgage and it paid the bills
It was a simple life without any frills
But that all changed in '62
When the fires began and took the life we knew
Burning slow and mean it was a snake on the prowl
Breathin’ sulfur and fumes, chokin’ and foul

The fires that raged in the veins under town
Drove families away as it ate up the ground
The sounds of the hammers, chisels and rails
Gone away in the smoke, fade away with the gales
Oh the coal was our life, the coal was our bread
Now I’m just a coal miner with nowhere to head

Now the ghosts of this town are all that remain
Boarded up windows and broken down frames
The few that hang back like some weathered old wood
Tryin’ to stand tall where this proud town once stood
Holding hard and fast like the fires below
Just burning our lives leaving nothing to show

Well I am just my father’s son
Followed his footsteps deep underground
Dug out a living from down in the earth
Just a coal miner straight from my birth
Just a coal miner straight from my birth