Dave Alvin - You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive lyrics

In the deep dark hills of Eastern Kentucky That's the place where I trace my bloodline And it's there I read on a hillside gravestone You will never leave Harlan alive Well, my granddad's dad crossed the Cumberland Mountains And he asked Tillie Helton to be his bride He said won't you walk with me out of this mouth of this holler Or we'll never leave Harlan alive Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning And the sun goes down about three in the day And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinking And you spend your life just thinking how to get away No one ever knew there was coal in these mountains Till a man from the Northeast arrived Waving hundred dollar bills and saying I'll pay y'all for your minerals But he never left Harlan alive Granny sold out cheap and they moved out west to Pineville To a farm where the big Richland river winds And I bet they danced them a jig and they laughed and sang a new song Who said we'd never leave Harlan alive? But the times, they got hard and tobacco wasn't selling And old granddad knew what he had to do to survive He went and dug for Harlan coal and sent the money back to granny But he never left Harlan alive Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning And the sun goes down about three in the day And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinking And you spend your life digging coal from the bottom of your grave Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning And the sun goes down about three in the day And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinking And you spend your life digging coal from the bottom of your grave In the deep dark hills of Eastern Kentucky That's the place where I trace my bloodline And it's there I read on a hillside gravestone You will never leave Harlan alive