There's a big black train
I've been hearing all my life
Every night, at sundown
I hear its lonesome cry

When I look through the screen door
I see a rocking chair
My mama's sitting in it
Thinking 'bout that world out there

She wants to go over that mountain
To see what's on the other side
She said, "I want to go over that mountain
Before the day that I die"

Well she's never set foot
Out of this poor valley holler
Though she talks about her dreams
Of some other way to fly

Eighty seven years of living
And never had much of anything
Is it asking too much to see
A damned old diesel train?

She wants to go over that mountain
To see what's on the other side
She said, "I want to go over that mountain
Before the day that I die"

Twenty years ago, today
My daddy left this holler
He said, "I'll be coming back
Tomorrow night"

I remember the sound
Of his boot heels in the gravel
Well, he ain't been back since
And he never said goodbye

She wants to go over that mountain
To see what's on the other side
She said, "I want to go over that mountain
Before the day that I die
Before the day that I die"