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