Tumbledown Joe (feat. Jessie Pines)

Way up north where the pine trees grow
Lived a trapper by the name of Tumble Down Joe
Had a one-room shack by the river bend
And the fox and the bear they were his only friends
He'd walk the ridge with the frost on his beard
No man's law and no man's fear
With snares in his pack and tails in his eyes
He lived by the moon and the raven's cries
But the saws are humming like a distant storm
The trees fall down where the deer were born
Joe stands still in the falling snow saying
Where do a wild man's spirit go
Oh they're taking the woods they're taking it slow
But it's death by inches for Tumble Down Joe
He warned the loggers these hills got sold
More than gold in your banker's bowl
They just laughed said progress pays
As the trucks rolled in and they paved his days
Now the saws are humming like a funeral bell
And Joe just mutters they're cutting my shell
He don't fight back he just fades low into the mist
Old Tumble Down Joe
Some say he vanished when the last owl cried
Some say he's buried where the wolf still hides
But I swear on the wind when the cold winds blow
You can hear the footsteps of Tumble Down Joe
Now the trees are gone but the stories grow
Of the ghosts in the woods Tumble Down Joe
Oh they took the land but they'll never know