Dark As A Dungeon By Merle Travis

I first heard this on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will The Circle Be Unbroken album back in middle school. Our music teacher brought this album in and used several of the songs on it to teach some lessons about the different types of music.

I fell in love with the songs I heard in class and bugged my mom till she bought me a copy of the album. Back then it was actual vinyl record albums. I also bought cassette copies and eventually CD copies of it. I still have the CD copy. That album has some other beautiful songs on it like Wildwood Flower.

Dark As A Dungeon just sort of grabs my imagination though. Those men who worked (or still do) in mines had a hard row to hoe and they didn't get paid nearly enough in my opinion. Not for working in the dark and risking their lives.

Come listen you fellows so young and so fine
Oh seek not your fortune in the dark dreary mine
It will form as a habit and seep in your soul
'Till the stream of your blood is as black as the coal

Chorus:

It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew 
Where the danger is double and the pleasures are few 
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines 
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines 

It's a-many a man I've known in my day
Who lived just to labor his life away
Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine
A man will have lust for the lure of the mine

The midnight the morning or the middle of the day
It's the same to the miner who labors away
Where the demons of death often come by surprise
One fall of the slate and your buried alive

 I hope when I'm gone and the ages shall roll
My body will blacken and turn into coal
Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home
And pity the miner a-digging my bones

Victory In Jesus

I remember singing this in church when I was 10-14. There was a group of us girls who sang "specials" and this was one of our favorite songs.

My great-grandmother also loved this song and it is one of the songs I remember her singing while sitting in the recliner with the dog on her lap looking out the window.

It was written by the famous gospel singing teacher Eugene M. Bartlett. According to The Complete Book of Hymns by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen it was the last song he wrote and he wrote it after having a stroke that left him pretty much disabled and home-bound.

I heard an old, old story,
How a Savior came from glory,
How He gave His life on Calvary
To save a wretch like me;
I heard about His groaning,
Of His precious blood's atoning,
Then I repented of my sins
And won the victory.


Chorus
O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bo't me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.

I heard about His healing,
Of His cleansing pow'r revealing.
How He made the lame to walk again
And caused the blind to see;
And then I cried, "Dear Jesus,
Come and heal my broken spirit,"
And somehow Jesus came and bro't
To me the victory.


I heard about a mansion
He has built for me in glory.
And I heard about the streets of gold
Beyond the crystal sea;
About the angels singing,
And the old redemption story,
And some sweet day I'll sing up there
The song of victory. 

Written by Eugene M. Bartlett (1885-1941)
© 1939 - Administrated by Integrated Copyright Group, Inc.
All rights reserved  

 This song has been recorded a lot too and if you do a search on Amazon.com you will find several pages of albums that have this song.

In The Big Rock Candy Mountains

I remember this from when I was a kid. Not sure if I knew the song before but my family went to Rock City in Chattanooga, Tennessee and they had a big animated critter (I think it was a bear) out front and it was playing this song.

I have heard it sung by several people. Burl Ives sang it. Harry McClintock sings it in O Brother, Where Art Thou? I have heard it done by others too but can't remember the names.

It is a fun song to sing. The children's versions usually change the lyrics to leave out the cigarettes and liquor. And of course there was supposed to be a verse at the end where one of them basically says he is tired of hunting for the mountains which uses some fairly graphic language. I did NOT include that verse here. You can find it on the net if you really want to.

One evening as the sun went down
And the jungle fires were burning,
Down the track came a hobo hiking,
And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning
I'm headed for a land that's far away
Besides the crystal fountains
So come with me, we'll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
There's a land that's fair and bright,
Where the handouts grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night.
Where the boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines every day
And the birds and the bees
And the cigarette trees
The lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
All the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
The farmers' trees are full of fruit
And the barns are full of hay
Oh I'm bound to go
Where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall
The winds don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats
And the railway bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew
And of whiskey too
You can paddle all around it
In a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
The jails are made of tin.
And you can walk right out again,
As soon as you are in.
There ain't no short-handled shovels,
No axes, saws nor picks,
I'm bound to stay
Where you sleep all day,
Where they hung the jerk
That invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
....
I'll see you all this coming fall
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains