BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAIN REFUGEE
As recorded by Si Kahn and the Looping Brothers on "Aragon Mill: The Bluegrass Sessions" (2013)

I'm workin' in a factory, thinkin' how it feels
To be bringin' home good money like my daddy never seen,
But a feelin' follows after me like a hound dog at my heels
'Cause I know that I'll never see my mountain home again.

Oh, they say that you can't go home again,
Never sit and talk among your childhood friends,
Never live among your neighbors and your kin.
No, you'll never see your mountain home again.

Down by the railway station in the early afternoon
You can see them carryin' bundles that are all done up in twine.
They hear the whistle from the south; they're sayin' their goodbyes,
And they say they'll be back but they're leavin' for all time.

For they know that they can't go home again,
Never sit and talk among their childhood friends,
Never live among their neighbors and their kin.
No, they'll never see their mountain homes again.

In Cincinnati, Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit,
You can find us by the thousands with our husbands and our wives.
If you wonder what we're doin' here so far from our mountain homes,
We're Blue Ridge Mountain refugees fighting for our lives.

And we know we can't go home again,
Never sit and talk among our childhood friends,
Never live among our neighbors and our kin.
No, we'll never see our mountain homes again.