Appalachian Song - Dan Cunningham
Track 6
IF I LEFT THESE HILLS is about leaving the hills and wondering how long it will be before returning home. Based partly on the Appalachian diaspora - a significant migration with folks leaving states like West Virginia to find work . Some describe this way out of the hills as the “Hillbilly Highway”. In this case, the historical background concerns the many West Virginians who migrated to the industrial cities Ohio after WWII. They often found factory work with the steel and rubber companies.
A brief view of this phenomenon:
http://www.appalachianhistory.net/2011/08/where-hillbilly-highway-ends.html
here are the lyrics:
If I left these hills and went away
Would I live to return before I die
I did it once before but I couldn't stay
Factory work in the city what did it buy?
At night I'd lie awake
When I slept it filled my dreams
HiIls that stretch out forever
And mountain streams
If I came to meet you in Topeka
How long would we stay out on the plain
I fondly remember all the people there
But you were the only reason that I came
At night I'd lie awake while you were deep in dreams
You didn't hear the call or so it seems
I found work out in Ohio, I found love in out on the plains
But this sad, unsettled feeling, is what remains
I watch the sky and wonder what might have been
There's a girl in Topeka she wonders too
All my my friends in Akron at the factory
Sad when I left, they asked what will you do?
I'll be walking in the mountains
and valleys deep along the streams
Awake or fast asleep
Just like my dreams
© 2010 pickndawg music
words and music by Dan Cunningham
Dan Cunningham: guitars, mandolin, cello, percussion, and vocal
Evan Lintz: bass drum
recording info :
guitars: Yamaha LJX6C - Larrivee SD50
mandolin: Rogue RM-100A
Mics: Rode NT-1 (rebuilt) - RodeNTK
preamp: Art Digital MPA Gold
recorded in the BOOM CLOSET Morgantown WV
mixed and mastered at Zone 8 Studio Morgantown WV by Mark Poole