North Country Blues
Joan Baez Lyrics

Come gather 'round, friends
Listen closely, my friends

And I'll tell you a tale
I will share my story with you

Of when the red iron ore pits ran plenty
When the mines were still profitable

But the cardboard filled windows
The town has fallen into disrepair

And old men on the benches
The elderly are left with nothing to do

Tell you now that the whole town is empty
The town has been abandoned by those who could afford to leave

In the north end of town
The part of town where I now live

My own children are grown
My children are now adults

But I was raised up on the other
I grew up in a different part of town

In the wee hours of youth
When I was a child

My mother took sick
My mother became ill

And I was brought up by my brother
My brother raised me

The iron ore poured
The mines were busy and profitable

As the years passed the door
As time went on

The drag lines an' the shovels was a-humming
The mines were active and productive

Till one day my brother
Until the day my brother

Failed to come home
Did not return home

The same as my father before him
My father had died while mining

Well, a long winter's wait
I waited all winter

From the window I watched
I watched from my window

My friends, they couldn't have been kinder
My friends were supportive

And my schooling was cut
I had to stop going to school

As I quit in the spring
I left school to get married

To marry John Thomas, a miner
I married a miner named John Thomas

Oh, the years passed again
Time went on

And the givin' was good
Life was good

With the lunch buckets filled every season
The miners were well-fed

What with three babies born
I had three children

The work was cut down
The workday was shortened

To a half a day's shift with no reason
The miners' hours were inexplicably reduced

Then the shaft was soon shut
The mine closed abruptly

And my work, it was cut
I lost my job

And the firing air, it felt frozen
The air felt cold without the mines

Till a man come to speak
A man came to talk

And he said in one week
He gave us one week

That number eleven was closin'
The mine would be closing

They complained in the East
People in the East were complaining

That they are paying too high
That they paid too much for the ore

They say that your ore ain't worth digging
The ore was not profitable enough

That it's much cheaper down
It was cheaper to mine elsewhere

In South American town
In a town in South America

Where the miners work almost for nothing
Where the miners were paid very little

So the mining gates locked
The mine was closed

And the red iron rotted
The mines became neglected

And the room smelled heavy from drinking
The townspeople turned to alcohol to cope

Where the sad, silent song
Where people were quietly suffering

Made the hour twice as long
Time passed slowly and painfully

As I waited for the sun to go sinking
I waited for the day to end

I lived by the window
I spent a lot of time by the window

As he talked to himself
As my husband talked to himself

This silence of tongues, it was building
The tension was growing

Then one morning's wake
One morning

The bed, it was bare
My husband was gone

And I's left alone with three children
I was left to care for our children alone

The summer is gone
Summer is over

The ground's turning cold
Winter is coming

The stars, one by one, they're a-foldin'
The stars are disappearing as morning arrives

My children will go
My children will leave for a better life

As soon as they grow
When they are old enough

Oh, there ain't nothing here now to hold them
There is nothing here to keep them in this town