"Panther Ridge" lyrics

Daddy was chopping cotton out in the field
Hoping the bugs would stay off of his crops
Momma was in the kitchen baking a pie
Pinto beans boiling in the pot
I was down by the river
Trying to do a swan dive off the bridge
Things were moving easy on Panther Ridge

Curtis Lee Williamson dropped out of school
Found him a job over at the paper mill
He got a double wide trailer and above the ground pool
Spends his time trying to pay the bills
With his wife and early children
And a few cold ones in the fridge
He said goodbye to the river days on Panther Ridge

Nobody knows the story
They don't know what went wrong
Things started going bad for one and all
The fish were dying in the river
The birds wouldn't sing their song
And the trees stopped changing colors in the fall

Way on up the river in the hills of Tennessee
A big engine winds day and night
Supplying all the valleys with electricity
Spits its silver clouds in the sky
No one will ever know the truth
The officials keep it hid
But people keep on dying young on Panther Ridge...