Then the mines begin to close, and what follows comes in stages: saws on the mountain and logging trucks on the road, the mountaintop flattened and the streams running black, and a father spending more and more time alone in the barn since the mining went bad. The refrain does not argue either side — call it progress or a shame, it says, you cannot stop a train — and saves its sting for the last line, where the developers cut down the trees and then name the new streets after them.

The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys recorded it for Toil, Tears & Trouble, their first Rounder album, in 2019. Mandolinist C.J. Lewandowski said the line about cutting the trees and naming the streets hit him the first time he heard it, and the song came close to giving the album its title. Their version carried it from Cleaves’ Americana audience into bluegrass.