“Son of a Sawmill Man” was written by Bobby Osborne and Pete Goble. The Osborne Brothers recorded it in 1968.
The song is about a working-class inheritance. The singer follows his father into the sawmill, taking up the same hard labor, and the lyric weighs that handed-down life — the pride and the burden of carrying on a father’s trade.
The song was later revived by the Grascals.