Lawrence Jones Lyrics - Coal - Kathy Mattea

Well the night is as thick as silence 

You can't cut it with a knife 

A man lies in the hospital 

Draining out his life 

The trucks are on the back road 

And in the dark the headlights shine 

'Cause there's one man dead 

On that Harlan County line 

Oh anger, like poison 

Is eating at your soul 

Your thoughts are as loud as gunfire 

Your face as hard as coal 

Bitterness, like buckshot explodes inside your mind 

And there's one man dead 

On that Harlan County line 

Oh a miner's life is fragile 

It could shatter just like ice 

But those who bear the struggle 

Have always pay the price 

There's blood upon the contact 

Like vinegar in wine 

And there's one man dead 

On that Harlan County line 

From the river bridge at Highsplint 

To the Brookside railroad track 

You can feel the long streak building 

That can never be turned back 

The dead go forward with us 

Not one is left behind 

'Cause there's one man dead 

On that Harlan County line