Lyrics

Muddy water shimmy down mining shack lane,
Preacher drawlin' sermons 'bout profit and pain.
Coal-black baptism drowning sinner and saint,
Salvation traded for promises faint.

Bayou whisper drift through mountain coal,
Debt fills lungs where breath once stole.
Voices plead mercy from bottomless mine,
Faith tied tighter with company twine.

Widow rock slowly, porch battered by storm,
Cradle creaks empty, judgment takes form.
Shadows swim sluggish, pulled down beneath reeds,
Swamp waters rising over coal-black seeds.

Gentlemen shake hands, sign away lives,
Town's gut-tight hunger, sorrow survives.
Graveyard grow quicker than crops on farm—
Prayer swallowed silent beneath coal’s charm.

Preacher's pockets heavy, stained deep ash grey,
Cold whiskey sermons soften who pays.
Lantern flickers dying while death creeps near,
Ghost coal-smeared faces fade quiet and clear.

Progress rust quietly into marsh-soaked dreams,
Church spire tilted where no sunbeam gleams.
Roots press downward, deeper each hour,
Coal cavern crumbles, swamp holds dark power.

Company boss smiling as black water rise;
Miners baptized darkly—no more surprise.
Rust echoes slowly on shovel and pick,
Swallowed quicksand gospel, breathing turned thick.

Black diamonds and shadows staining sons lost,
Weigh profit in curses, indifferent cost.
Moonlit revival tent crumbling slow,
Poor souls sinking where wild cattails grow.

So sing low hymns for the living entombed—
Swamp prayers whispered, dark mountains resumed.
Faith borrowed cheaply at the company’s store,
Lives surrendered silent, repeating once more.