Southwest Virginia Blues
Doug & Telisha Williams ©2005

I was born in North Carolina
Up to Virginia I did go
I was not more than a boy then
and the life of sin I did not know

I made my way into the sawmills
In those Blue Ridge mountains steep
and any money that I made there
wasted away on cards and drink

The boss man said that I'd be sorry
if I didn't save what I had earned
With foolish pride, I scoffed and I laughed then
Wish I had known what I have learned

(Chorus)
The bottle always winds up empty
and those cards always lay down flat
The grave you dig when you're a young man
in a few more days, that's where you're at

Well I had squandered all my money
and I owed more than I could ever pay
but every time they pulled those cards out
I'd find a way that I could play

'Till late one night with the courage of whiskey
I saw the boss man with his watch and chain
he walked alone across the camp there
and with my knife, him I did slay

I took his gold watch and his chain now
Whiskey drunk I did feel brave
I took the money from his pocket
and I laid him down, in a shallow grave

(Chorus)

Then drink did flow like a rolling river
I paid off all the debts that I owed
and for the murder I had committed
no remorse, did I show

Two days past with drink and gambling
then I was arrested for a drunken fight
For that brawl I would pay dearly
for in the jail, I'd spend the night

Now here I stand upon the scaffold
and my heart is filled with pain
for when they looked in my back pocket
they found his gold watch and his chain

(Chorus x2)