Coal Tattoo - Kathy Mattea

Travelin' down that coal town road

Listen to my rubber tires whine;

Goodbye to buckeye and white sycamore

I’m leavin' you behind

Oh I’ve been a coal man all my life

Layin' down tracks in the hole

Got a back like an ironwood

Bent by the wind

Blood veins blue as the coal

Blood veins blue as the coal

Somebody said «That's a strange tattoo

You have on the side of your head.»

I said «That's a blue print, left by the coal

Just a little more and I’d be dead»

And I love the rumble and I love the dark

I love the cool of the slate

But it’s on down the new road lookin' for a job

It’s the travelin' and lookin' I hate

I’ve stood for the union, walkin' the line

Fought against the company;

Stood for the U. M. W. of A

Now who’s gonna stand for me?

I got no house and I got no pay

Just got a worried soul;

And this blue tattoo on the side of my head

Left by the number nine coal

Someday when I’m dead and gone

To Heaven, the land of my dreams

I won’t have to worry on losin' my job

To bad times 'n big machines

I ain’t gonna pay my money away

For pensions and hospital plans

I’m gonna pick coal where the blue heavens roll

And sing with the angel bands