OLD JEROME
(Kate Wolf)

Drinking early morning coffee,
Talking with good friends
And walking the streets of rough cut stone
She was once a miner's city
Now the ghost of a dying town
But there's a fire burning bright in Old Jerome

Some have come for fortune
Some have come for love
And some have come for the things they cannot see
Now the grass is green and growing
Where the gardens once had died
And the birds sing in the young alanthus trees

And they say that once you live here
You never really go
'Cause she'll have a hold on you until you die
With her ground moving crazy
Her fierce wind blowing free
And her ruins standing proud against the sky

Houses cling to mountains
Like miners cling to dreams
They hold on so long and then they just let go
And this mountain she's your mistress
You'll ride her 'til you fall
And wash down to the valley far below

There are stories that tell on Cleopatra
There are stories that never can be told
The wind and the rain sing their mountain lullaby
The copper shines like Arizona gold

And her walls stand strong and silent
Starin' out with empty eyes
Like beggars, blind and lame, that do no harm
With their empty rooms that hold
The old town's memories
And their doorways that reach out like empty arms

In the streets the children play
Climbing up the crooked stairs
And lovers touch and turn to go back home
And the sounds of hammers echo
In the once forgotten halls
And hope stirs in the heart of Old Jerome

The moon shines bright on Cleopatra
Where the mines lie sleeping far below
The wind and the rain sing their mountain lullaby
And the copper shines like Arizona gold

Words and music by Kate Wolf. Copyright 1983 Another Sundown Publishing Co. BMI.

Source: Kate Wolf 'The Wind Blows Wild' Rhino CD R2 71486.

Note: Jerome is an old mining town, perched halfway up Cleopatra Hill (part of Mingus Mountain), that has survived as an artists' colony. Founded in 1876, the town sits above what was the largest copper mine in Arizona. In 1929, its population was 15,000 and it prospered until the mines and the mining economy began petering out during the Great Depression.

--Stewie.