Ride this train up and down and across a strange wonderful land 

It's almost like a fairyland when you to think about it 

You go through places with names like Tuscaloosa Kokomo Muskogee Oshkosh Saginaw 

Eureka Bandera Battle Creek Sioux City Chattanooga 

Hattiesburg Lynchburg and Baltinare Arkansas 

You see I'm a million different people from all over the world 

And I've been coming to this country for hundreds of years 

This was the Promised Land for me 

But let's not forget that when I came here 

There were already millions of people living in teepees along the rivers 

And hunting deer and buffalo for food and shelter 

And it's with a little regret that I think of how I pushed them back 

And crowded them out to claim this land for myself or for another country 

But the Indians' hearts must have been full of music 

For they left names with me that seem to sing 

Names like Mohawk Mandan Kickapoo Cree Yacoma Seminole Crow Shawnee 

Choctaw Delaware Fox Paiute Winnebago Cheyenne Blackfoot 

Navajo Ute Comanche Quapaw Creek Apache Sioux Chippewa 

Ardua Hupa Shoshone Mow Hicano Sage Menomini 

Shinouk Arapaho Nez Perce Iroquois Pony Cutenai 

Flathead Chickasaw Pueblo Yuma Pima Pomo Caddo 

Well a lot of them are still with me and I'm glad 

It's for sure their names will always be with me 

But let's look a little at the heart and muscle of this land 

Few things you don't read in books things that aren't taught in school 

Now you take this little town we're goin' through here this is Beach Creek Kentucky 

And right down there in the valley that's where our house used to be 

It was a little shotgun shack with a spring out back 

And a smokehouse and another little bitty house and that's about all 

My pa was a coalminer like most everybody in Mulengerg County 

Worked in the mines all his life 

I guess he didn't have much ambition to do anything else 

Cause they say coalmining kinda gets in your blood 

Matter of fact pa said if they ever drained the blood out of him 

It would be blacker than black strap moulesen 

When I was a kid I used to sit at the fireplace there with mom 

And wait on pa to get in from the mine 

And we'd sure get anxious if he was ever late 

Ma would rock back and forth and watch the clock listin' for pa to hit the front porch 

Then he'd come in nothin' clean but the whites of his eyes 

And he'd reach for that lie-soap and starts scrubbin' 

And I'd stand back and watch him and say to myself 

Boy I'll be glad when I get big enough to work in the mines