Panther Ridge

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 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