I'm working in a factory and thinking how it feels
To be bringing home good money like my daddy never seen
But a feeling follows after me like a hound dog at my heels
'Cause I know that I'll never see my mountain home again

Oh, they say that you can't go home again
Never sit and talk among your childhood friends
Never live among your neighbors and your kin
Oh, you'll never see your mountain home again

Down by the railway station in the early afternoon
You can see them carrying bundles that are all done up in twine
And they hear the whistle from the South, they're saying their goodbyes
And they say they'll all be back but they're leaving for all time

Don't they know that they can't go home again
Never sit and talk among their childhood friends
Never live among their neighbors and their kin
No, they'll never see their mountain homes again

In Cincinnati, Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit
You can find us by the thousands with our husbands and our wives
If you wonder what we're doing here so far from our mountain homes
We're Blue Ridge Mountain Refugees fighting for our lives

And we know that we can't go home again
Never sit and talk among our childhood friends
Never live among our neighbors and our kin
No, we'll never see our mountain homes again