DESCRIPTION:
Slaid Cleaves with "Scrappy" Jud Newcomb 7-9-2016
by Karen Poston . . . Pistol Girl Music, BMI,
from the CDs Broke Down and Sorrow & Smoke: Live at the Horseshoe Lounge,

Lydia lit a cigarette today
Ancient fumbling fingers in her way
From a forty-year-old coffee cup she sipped a bit of gin
Closed her eyes and let the memories in

She lives in the old place all alone
Keeps in touch with neighbors by the phone
Grows herbs upon the graves of her first born and his father
And the coal trucks never bothered her

Oh, Lydia let him go, the boy is gone
Her mother struggled as she tore him from her arms
Oh, Lydia, your tears are heaven’s rain
But she never was the same

A cotton dress and satin shoes
Indian summer sun, dressed in amber hues
Spending time with a coal miner’s son
To an old-time fiddle tune

The months blew by just like a breeze that year
They wed in June and by the fall the boy was here
Word come down from big stone, there’s a fire in the mine
And eleven men they couldn’t find

Oh, Lydia let him go, the boy is gone
Her mother struggled as she tore him from her arms
Oh, Lydia, your tears are heaven’s rain
But she never was the same

She watched them pull him from the hole
The overalls he wore were blackened by the smoke
Lydia twice had had this dream and twice it had come true
And when she saw his father’s boots she knew

Oh, Lydia let him go, the boy is gone
Her mother struggled as she tore him from her arms
Oh, Lydia, your tears are heaven’s rain
But she never was the same

Lydia lit a cigarette today
Ancient fumbling fingers in her way
From a forty-year-old coffee cup she sipped a bit of gin
Closed her eyes and let the memories in