Gail Martin

Lyrics

Life as hard as stone music and lyrics Gail Martin


My name is John, and where I’m from, adds nothing to this story
Suffice to say I’s young and proud and came here for the glory
The forests they ran dark and deep in all the four directions
That first long freeze we ate our seeds and what our bows could fetch in

Chorus:
So raise a cup to kill the pain, and raise a cup for glory
We broke our backs and broke our blades to write new england’s story
-broke our backs and broke our blades to write new england’s story


To claim my stake would only ask the mettle of its making
So I set on with one good mule to clear a farm by year’s end
But damn the felling of these trees, each stone that broke a plow-blade
By autumns end the mule was gone, and I had nearly nothing.

Chorus

I know not how I made it through, so many gone before me
To live this life as hard as stone in this joyless foreign country
Years on end I worked these fields, piled stone in rows to bound them
Now at my end, I have no pride, but new land to have founded

Chorus

And here and now, to know my name, adds nothing to this story
Suffice to say I walk these trails to contemplate the mysteries
And in these rows of stone I sense the hardship of their making
And I remember hard-won farms by woodland now retaken

Chorus:
So raise a cup to kill the pain and shed a tear for glory
They broke their backs and broke their blades to write new england’s story
-broke their backs and broke their blades to write new england’s story