My Fathers Son

My history is no secret it’s written in the stones

In the hill beside this river rests my mother’s gentle bones

And daddy there beside her home among his next of kin

And their legacy passed down to me the son of mountain men

Raised to be a miner by a miner’s calloused hands

Passed my youth between this mountains where I grew to understand

That family was the word of God and faith was its demand

And life and death the same came from the coal beneath this land

Well a rich man writes the book of laws a poor man must defend

But the highest laws are written on the hearts of honest men

If that cup is passed to me to do what must be done

When they lay me down remind them I was just my father’s son

I’ve walked among these people heard the stories that they tell

I’ve crawled beside them in the mines and touched the walls of hell

I’ve shared their sacred secrets known their triumph and their pain

And right or wrong I’ll stand with them on the final judgment day

They say God gives us comfort when the time of trouble comes

They say we’ll know no share of peace till we lay down our guns

But will my boy had the chance to do the things I’ve never done

Or will he like me be told that he must be his father’s son

Well a rich man writes the book of laws a poor man must defend

But the highest laws are written on the hearts of honest men

When that cup is passed to me to do what must be done

On a chunk of coal just carve these words I was just my father’s son