Harder Than Steel

Have you heard the red hawk's cry
In the morning high on Roan Mountain
When the sun comes up over Carolina hills
The wind sweeps softly through the pines
Have you seen the blue smoke rise

From the chimney down in the valley
Where the big water wheel
Turns the iron ore to steel
Harder than a heart that's made of stone

The trail
Winds up
Past the rocks and the boughs of the Roan
And it's leading me back to the old home 'neath the pines
Why did I decide to roam

I had shared the stream with the wounded
I washed my eyes that were blind from the gun smoke
And when the fighting was all done
And we knew that we had won

We laid our brothers in the ground
Every spring I return to Roan Mountain
Just to search for the heart that was lost there
And I look for the stones
That mark long forgotten bones
Harder than the steel that cut them down

The trail
Winds up
Past the rocks and the boughs of the Roan
And it's leading me back to the old home 'neath the pines
Why did I decide to roam

Have you heard the red hawk's cry
In the morning high on Roan Mountain
When the sun comes up over Carolina hills
Why did I decide to roam