Pine Grove (Madhouse)

(album: River Fools & Mountain Saints - 2022)

Stranded inside a madhouse, baby
Down in old Pine Grove
Been up for days in a drunkard's haze
Just lit up by this stove
We got the band in the basement, mama
Fire on that mountain steel
Don't need your plow or that old milk cow
We're working on this hill
Hang up the wagon wheel

Well, here comes Lorraine, she's a stumbling terror
High on her bathtub gin
Shows me her kids and tells me how she is
How she was back when
Said, back when I worked for the county clerk
When I wore those finer clothes
Now them days are gone and we ain't got long
But I'm still a mountain rose
Heart like a young Pete Rose

Ain't coming down, it's a-roaring now
High on your river town
Dance on your porch 'round that old cane torch
And let your mountain sound
Too late to lay it down

Well, out on the ridge where they're rolling, Mama
Stray dogs and sirens fight
Barred all the doors, nailing 2x4's
Brushed off the coal oil light
And if I slip, don't you catch me, baby
I'll find that back road bend
I'll turn around like an old blood hound
Cut out my trail again
Back to my trailer den

Ain't coming down, it's a-roaring now
High on your river town
Dance on your porch 'round that old cane torch
And let your mountain sound
Too late to lay it down