Sit down buddy we'll drink and smoke
Woman don't you weep for me
My hands can't fiddle and my heart's been broke
You damned old piney mountains
Lost my fingers in the Galax mill
Buddy sing a sad old song
And my heart got broke in the yew pine hills
Lord and my time ain't long

I started out to loggin' when I was in my prime
Woman don't you weep for me
Hitchin' up the spruce to the big drag lines
You damned old piney mountains
Where the skidders start a-buckin' as the years come down
Buddy sing a sad old song
Makin' God's own thunder on the new-cut ground
Lord and my time ain't long

We was fightin' over nothin' and drinkin' too hard
Woman don't you weep for me
Ridin' up to camp on the flat-wheel cars
You damned old piney mountains
Thirty years a-hangin' on the old chain brake
Buddy sing a sad old song
Laid off and paid off in '58
Lord and my time ain't long

The skidders got sold to a scrap iron yard
Woman don't you weep for me
We moved down Virginia when the times got hard
You damned old piney mountains
Lost my fingers to a steel band saw
Buddy sing a sad old song
Now my fiddle just hangs untuned on the wall
Lord and my time ain't long

And the trees have grown up on the loggin' road
Woman don't you weep for me
And the wildflowers bloom where the big shays blow
You damned old piney mountains
There's nothin' left for me but to drink and smoke
Buddy sing a sad old song
My hands can't fiddle and my heart's been broke
Lord and my time ain't long