Brad Paisley - You'll never leave harlan alive.

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

Oh, my granddad's dad walked down
Katahrins Mountain
And he asked Tillie Helton to be his bride
Said, won't you walk with me out of the 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 thinkin' of how to get away

No one ever knew there was coal in them mountains
'Til a man from the Northeast arrived
Waving hundred dollar bills he said I'll pay ya for your minerals
But he never left Harlan alive

Granny sold out cheap and they moved out west
Of Pineville
To a farm where big Richland River winds
I bet they danced them a jig, laughed and sang a new song
Who said we'd never leave Harlan alive

But the times got hard and tobacco wasn't selling
And ole granddad knew what he'd 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 just thinkin' of how to get away

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

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Brad
• Paisley
• country
• you'll
• never
• leave
• harlan
• alive

[charliecollier1]

I'm from central virginia at the foot of the blue ridge mountains and to me the beauty of the region near harlan is second to none.

[Fezzterify]

@nbloomfield960 And, to be fair, we both could be a little right and a little wrong. The spelling could be colloquial and vary from town to town. My evidence is anecdotal, only from one town of many claiming Appalachian culture.

[Fezzterify]

@nbloomfield960 While I'll agree that most government at the federal and state levels are pretty corrupt, I doubt it's as much so at the local level. The more powerful the structure, the less motive there is for corruption. But this is all beside the point, the roads were named by the residents of each hollow, 15 or so years before I lived there, back when they were redoing all the 911 addresses.

[nbloomfield960]

@Fezzterify do you really think that the government is going to spell things the way hillbillies say and spell it? No, and we are happy as hell to be as different from those corrupt pieces of trash.

[Fezzterify]

@nbloomfield960 Tell that to all the street signs around the hollow i used to live in.

[CasieNikoline]

It's magic!! Brad paisley can do any song, and make it beautiful! <3

[nbloomfield960]

@Fezzterify It's spelled holler in American, speak English all you want

[krypter3]

Justified.

[Fezzterify]

It's spelled "hollow" not "holler."

[russiangooglespy]

This song made that moment at the end of Justified! I'm from Scotland so can only watch the series on DVD. Can't wait for the 3rd season, though somehow I doubt they'll find a song to top this one.