North Country Blues (cover)

Here's one that's a little more appropriate for my voice. More Dylan. I know I said I was gonna take a break from covering his stuff but I can't help it. He has me firmly under his spell : ) This actually took a lot out of me and not only did I almost start to cry several times while singing it but I did cry after. Woa...he can really write can't he?



Come gather 'round friends
And I'll tell you a tale
Of when the red iron pits ran plenty.
But the cardboard filled windows
And old men on the benches
Tell you now that the whole town is empty.

In the north end of town,
My own children are grown
But I was raised on the other.
In the wee hours of youth,
My mother took sick
And I was brought up by my brother.

The iron ore poured
As the years passed the door,
The drag lines an' the shovels they was a-humming.
'Til one day my brother
Failed to come home
The same as my father before him.

Well a long winter's wait,
From the window I watched.
My friends they couldn't have been kinder.
And my schooling was cut
As I quit in the spring
To marry John Thomas, a miner.

Oh the years passed again
And the givin' was good,
With the lunch bucket filled every season.
What with three babies born,
The work was cut down
To a half a day's shift with no reason.

Then the shaft was soon shut
And more work was cut,
And the fire in the air, it felt frozen.
'Til a man come to speak
And he said in one week
That number eleven was closin'.

They complained in the East,
They are paying too high.
They say that your ore ain't worth digging.
That it's much cheaper down
In the South American towns
Where the miners work almost for nothing.

So the mining gates locked
And the red iron rotted
And the room smelled heavy from drinking.
Where the sad, silent song
Made the hour twice as long
As I waited for the sun to go sinking.

I lived by the window
As he talked to himself,
This silence of tongues it was building.
Then one morning's wake,
The bed it was bare,
And I's left alone with three children.

The summer is gone,
The ground's turning cold,
The stores one by one they're a-foldin'.
My children will go
As soon as they grow.
Well, there ain't nothing here now to hold them.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Bob
• Dylan
• North
• Country
• Blues
• bonus
• acoustic
• cover
• CitizenWorm

[dospook]

Just looked through "video's I've liked" and this came up for so long ago. i LIKE it so much. it's such easy , nice listening.

Oh citizen when will our paths cross?

[CitizenWorm]

@dospook Soon I hope!

[covermethis1]

Lovely

[keg64]

excellent great cover*****

[CaptGolightly]

A really lovely cover, I have been toying with the idea of trying this myself, it has a resonance for me, I came from a similar place and was once a miner too. If I can render it half as sweetly I shall be well pleased many thanks.

[saavedra29]

nice voice and playing! congratulations!

[spanamer]

Faced with the insanity that grew up around his phenomenal success and fueled by narcotiThis is probably my favorite Bob Dylan song from his early period. It was the song that convinced me that he is indeed a supreme artist capable of evoking the deepest of human emotions and revealing the the very real fact that truth is stranger than fiction.

[spanamer]

Absolutely beautiful and absolutely heartbreaking!

Bill Bray

[Hcosl]

muy verga esta rola

[dominiquedv]

What a beautiful voice!!!!