THIRTY INCH COAL
(words & music by Mike Paxton, Adkins Music BMI, Orange Park. FL)

Grab your pick and shovel, bring your safety light,
Don't forget your fuses and your dynamite,
Put on your knee pads and your safety toes;
We're goin' to the coal mine where the coal is low.

Chorus:
Ridin' on a lizard in the thirty-inch coal;
See the cable sparklin', watch the little wheels roll.
Now, Lord, have mercy on a miner's soul,
Down on your poor knees in the thirty-inch coal.

Timber up that heading, set the wedges tight
Or your wife and your children won't see you tonight.
Spread out a little rock dust, spread a little more
To keep the coal dust on the mining floor.

Recordings:

Come All You Coal Miners (Rounder Records 4005)
Diamonds In the Rough (Men of the Deeps Music MD 1025)

text is from ""And Now The Fields Are Green": A Collection of Coal Mining Songs In Canada" by John C O'Donnell (1992 University College of Cape Breton Press, isbn 0-920336-43-4)

John O'Donnell was for many years the music director of The Men of The Deeps.

rich r