1) I was born with a hammer in my hand
It’s the kind of life I doubt you’d understand
I’d give most everything just to hear that cold steel ring
I was born with a hammer in my hand

2) John Henry was a steel-drivin’ man
You could hear his hammer ring across the land
But before the steam drill came, John Henry knew my name
I was born with a hammer in my hand

3) Swingin’ steel’s the only life I’ve known
I’ve never been afraid to be alone
I know my Mama understands I’ll always be a working man
I was born with a hammer in my hand

4) The stro-boss tries to break a good man’s back
He takes thirty men to lay a mile of track
But if my shaker holds the line, they’ll be thirty miles behind me
I was born with a hammer in my hand

5) Well they say John Henry is the man
You can hear his hammer ring across the land
But if you put us side by side, he’d have to run and hide
‘cause I was born with a hammer in my hand

1) Troubles up and down the road, and trials all the way around
Never knew what trouble was till my darling threw me down

2) If ever I meet that girl again, our troubles will all be oer
I’ll steal her out away from home; We will sail for some foreign shore

4) When my worldly trials are over and my last goodbye I’ve said
Bury me near my darling’s doorstep where the roses bloom and fade

5) My pockets are all empty like they’ve often been before;
If I ever reach my home again, I’ll walk these ties no more

6) The cheapest thing I ever done was sleepin’ out among the pines
The hardest thing I ever tried was keeping your loving off my mind

8) Have never worked for pleasure, peace on earth I cannot find
The only thing I surely own is a worried and troubled mind

9) Troubles up and down the road, and trials all the way around
Never knew what trouble was till my darling threw me down

(Lyrics available in CD booklet)

1) “Clay listen close to what your brother says,”
My Momma stood a-waitin’ by the door
While Daddy he was way off in the woods
He never saw his boy alive (oldest boy) no more

2) When Clay and Ottie came to work in Cleveland
It was hard to find a job in ‘32
Then Ottie came down sick and Clay was helpless
to stop his greatest fears from coming true

CH) Home is all I have left in this world to hold on to
But now they’ve let it go and I’ve nothing left to show
It’ll never be the same to me no more

3) Now living on the farm was all we knew
and in my mind I see the homeplace still
But they said they’d rather sell and go to renting
than leave poor Ottie in some Potter’s field

4) My Daddy never owned another farm
and he grew to be an old and bitter man
While Momma stares off down the gravel road
She can still see Ottie stop and wave again

chorus

I am a man of constant sorrow
I've seen trouble all my days
I bid farewell to old Kentucky
The place where I was born and raised

For six long years I've been in trouble
No pleasure here on earth I've found
For in this world I'm bound to ramble
I have no friends to help me now

It's fare thee well my own true lover
I never expect to see you again
For I'm bound to ride that northern railroad
Perhaps I'll die upon this train

When your golden hair has turned to silver
The master calls your soul to him
Where we can be free from all our troubles
I'll meet you there at journey's end

Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger
My face you never will see no more
But there is one promise that is given
I'll meet you on God's golden shore

Stormy waters in this life come rage around me every day
But I am near the gate
No evil fate can come and tempt me off the straight and narrow way
For I am near the gate

Ch) I'm near the gate that leads to glory
That narrow way I'm passing through
A band of angels stand to greet me
I am near the gate

One day this ever changing life will change forever for us all
I am near the gate
Each of us will choose the path we're on the day that he will call
I am near the gate

When my body lies before the multitude to gather round
I am near the gate
I'll be going to a place where angels gather all around
I am near the gate

(Lyrics available in CD booklet)

1) I was a young man in my prime, I was barely twenty-three
When I caught what I thought was my loving wife with the sheriff's deputy
They tried me in Knoxville, east central Tennessee
Life and day, I heard them say, in Brushy Mountain Penitentiary

Ch) Don't come out of the hole
Don't come out of the hole
You've gotta stay down in the cold dark ground
and load another load of coal
Don't come out of the hole
Don't come out of the hole
The state owns the rights to your body
Till the good Lord claims your soul

2) I hadn't been there very long, I guess a month or so
When they said, "We need more men in the mine so down in the ground you'll go."
Don't even think of running," is the first thing I was told
"Cause there's a guard with a gun and orders to shoot the first man that comes out of this hole."

3) Now here I am an old man, the end is drawing near
Let me tell you one thing, and I'll make it very clear
There's nothing in this whole wide world worth the sacrifice of life
Not even the love of a jealous man for his two-timing wife

1) For twenty years he made a living in an east Kentucky mine
When friends would ask how things were going He could say he was doing fine
Then, the mine closed down and he ahd to leave that big house up on the ridge
Now he sleeps in a cardboard box underneath the sixth street bridge

Ch) And that could be you
That could be you
But for the grace of God, that could be you

2) She hasn't seen the man who swore he loved her for almost thirteen years
After six long months of crying, she ran out of tears
Now all her pride has been forsaken for dreams that won't come true
She knows minimum wage won't feed her kids so she does what she has to do

Br) Remember all the homeless families, all the battered wives
All the children who go to sleep hungry, night after night

Cause that could be you
that could be you
But for the grace of God, that could be you

(Lyrics available in CD booklet)

1) It was all because of you
that I left my only home
Now I'm going places, finding traces of you since you've gone
(I've never felt so all alone)

Chorus) It wasn't you that I kissed last night
It wasn't you that I held so tight
Sweetheart, I know the way you feel each day
And something just ain't right

2) You've never heard a more lonesome sound
than a teardrop falling down
When a loved one breaks the trust you've made
And throws it on the ground
I never dreamed you would let me down

Momma why do I have to sleep on the ground?
a pillow of straw and the dampness all around
Why do other kids mock me and put me down,
Why do the shepherds bring me gifts from miles around?
Momma why do I have to sleep on the ground?

Daddy why do I have to work so hard in wood?
I'd like to change the world and some people say I could
I'd heal all the sick and make the blind to see
and make the dumb to speak
Daddy why do I have to work so hard in wood?

Br) Wise men all say I'm wise beyond my years
I see angels in my dreams and they tell me why I'm here

Father I know why I have to carry the cross
'cause it's the only way I can save the world from loss
I'll carry your message through the best I can
But it seems the stones are thrown at me by every man
Father I know why I have to carry the cross